The Departmental Committee on Education chaired by Hon. Julius Melly (Tinderet), has called on the Budget and Appropriations Committee to consider proposing the reinstatement of the Kshs.4.9 billion for School Feeding Programme, which was not factored in, in the FY 2024/25 Budget Estimates.

 According to Hon. Melly the Committee on Education had reinstated Kshs.2 billion under National Council for Nomadic Education in Kenya (NACONEK) for the programme. 

"The Committee on Education has reinstated Kshs.2 billion under NACONEK for the School Feeding Programme. However, the amount reduced from the programme was Kshs.4.9 billion. The Committee recommends that the Budget and Appropriations Committee considers allocating the additional Kshs.2 billion so that the entire amount is fully reinstated." Hon. Melly said.

 He made these remarks when he was presenting the Education Committee's Budget Estimates for FY 2024/25 and the FY 2023/24 Supplementary II, before the Budget and Appropriations Committee led by Hon. Ndindi Nyoro (Kiharu).

 Further, Hon. Melly recommended that the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) converts the terms of service for the 26,000 intern Junior Secondary School (JSS) teachers from the current contracts into permanent and pensionable employment beginning July 2024, and not January 2025 as proposed.

 According to Hon. Melly that this would boost the teachers’ morale.

 “The conversion of the terms of service for intern teachers will boost their morale and is also an assurance of the Government commitment in ensuring that all future intern teachers are converted to permanent employment after successfully completing the internship period," he said.

 Hon. Nyoro sought to know what the financial effect of backdating the confirmation to July 2024 would have.

 “Assuming there is no supplementary budget, I would like you to clarify how much it would cost to hire all the JSS teachers on permanent terms?” he asked.

 In his response, Hon. Melly said the Government would require Kshs.14.6 billion.

 "To employ 46,000 teachers, we need Kshs.28.6 billion yet the Commission has been allocated Kshs.4.7 billion to recruit 20,000 interns and Kshs.8.3 billion to convert 26,000 intern teachers into permanent employment. This therefore means the Government is required to top up the deficit which is Kshs.14.6 billion,” he said.