School Heads to lose Supervisory Roles As Ministry Proposes to hire school managers

School Heads to lose Supervisory Roles As Ministry Proposes to hire school managers

The Ministry of Education has proposed major changes to the law that may see it take away the role of managing public schools from head teachers.

According to the ministry’s proposal, the Basic Education Act should be amended to redefine a ‘manager’. This may effectively see it hire a new set of persons to manage schools.

Should the proposed managers take over supervision of schools,  there may arise a  fresh storm between the ministry and the Teachers Service Commission.

A head teacher, also called principal, headmaster or headmistress, is a teacher who is in charge of a school. They are responsible for managing the school and making sure everything is running smoothly on a day-to-day basis.

Read also:

KNEC October 2020 Grade 4 and Class Eight Assessment Report Per Subject

October 2020 Assessment Predicts Mass failure among 2020 KCPE Candidates

How To Apply For Replacement Of Your Lost KNEC Certificate Online

Matiang’i’s Parallel line-up For May Elections Sends Panic To Sossion

This came as it emerged the ministry is unhappy it lacks control of the over 30,000 school heads in public schools, which receive billions of capitation cash annually from the government.

The ministry is also uncomfortable with not being in charge of teachers who manage infrastructure and are in charge of the safety of children in school.

According to the proposed definition, a manager will mean ‘a person who has been appointed by the Cabinet secretary to oversee management of education resources and implementation of policies and guidelines in basic education institutions.’

Under the Act, a manager is presently defined as ‘a person who has been appointed by the Cabinet secretary in consultation with the proprietor through regulations to coordinate and oversee implementation of education policies and guidelines in non-public basic education institutions and performs delegated teacher management functions.’

The proposed definition, however, means the ministry is pushing to hire new people to manage schools, as the definition of a principal remains unchanged.

The Amendment Bill (2020) is awaiting debate in the National Assembly with reports indicating a major education stakeholders meeting will be called next week to discuss the matter.

If passed, the law will take away management powers from school heads. This means the ministry will recruit new staff to oversee the huge monetary resources under the custody of schools, including infrastructure and management of learners.

The interpretation is pegged on the fact that there’s no proposed change to the definition of a ‘principal’ as is presently stated in the Act.

Under the Act, a principal has the meaning assigned to it under the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) Act. This means secondary school heads will still be hired, promoted and disciplined by TSC.

TSC maintains that it is mandated in law to hire and manage all teachers under government payroll.

When he appeared before the National Assembly Education Committee, CS George Magoha hinted at a plan to take charge of schools and teachers.

Magoha asked MPs to re-look into the present law that does not empower his office to be in charge of teachers.

He said that in the entire region, he is the only one running an education ministry that does not have control over teachers. “We are the only ministry in the region that is not in charge of teachers. We are the only sector head that is not in charge of teachers. It is about time you think about it because everybody thinks I am in charge of teachers. I have left the wisdom to you.”