After the Finance Bill is rejected, the 46,000 intern Junior Secondary School (JSS) teachers who are eligible for Permanent and Pensionable (PnP) periods run the possibility of not being employed.

President William Ruto gave the National Treasury instructions on Friday, June 28, 2024, to create supplemental estimates that would cut spending by the amount of money anticipated to be received from the Finance Bill, which he refused to sign. In order to remove every clause, the Head of State sent the Bill back to the National Assembly.

The end consequence will be a Ksh346 billion decrease in spending that will impact all three branches of government, namely ministries, departments, and agencies.

In order to match the budget with the updated Fiscal Framework, Ruto consequently gave the National Treasury instructions to all Principal Secretaries in various ministries to reduce the Financial Year 2024/25 budget across all operations.

The 46,000 JSS intern teachers who have been anxiously awaiting their confirmation since 2023 may be impacted by the cut.

The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) would get less KSh18.5 million as a result of the National Treasury’s planned budget cuts, which Education News has seen.

READ ALSO: Gov’t to Start Construction of 16,000 Classrooms for JSS.

The Commission has been directed by the Treasury to defer the employment of JSS intern teachers and the confirmation of interns to PnP. The state department for Higher Education and Research’s budget has been cut by KSh8.3 billion, affecting other state agencies on the Education docket.

A 3.2 billion budget cut to the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) will mean that many students will not receive funding.

Additionally, KSh3 billion has been taken out of the budget for infrastructure projects, and KSh2.1 billion has been taken out of the cost of differentiated units. The school feeding program has seen a KSh1.8 billion cut, and the budget for school infrastructure has been decreased by a total of KSh1.6 billion.

These cuts total KSh3.4 billion for the state department of Basic Education. Additionally, the KSh800 million initial budget allocation for the state department of Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions would be reduced. The ongoing TVET and TTI initiatives would be impacted by the amount cut.

Recruitment of 46,000 JSS intern teachers hangs in balance after Finance Bill rejection.