Kenya secondary school heads association (KESSHA) chairperson Indimuli Kahi has elicited a controversial debate over access to mobile phones by students.

According to Kahi, the changing trends in the digital economy should allow students to have mobile phones in schools.

“I always say this and I am always bashed but the truth is that technology is the way to go, and it should apply even to our education,” Kahi said.

However, the chief principal said the access to the phones should be well-guarded by teachers.

“Time has come when we need to think again on policies of use of mobile phones in schools by our students,” Kahi said.

Indimuli was speaking over the weekend during an event organized by Kewota to empower female teachers to access digital products and insurance coverage.

During the event, Kewota announced a major plan to empower its members to own laptops at affordable prices, launched a medical plan and also unveiled soft loans initiative for all registered members.

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Kahi explained that for instance, during the Covid 19 pandemic, most classes were being taken online.

Students would log in to classes, either using their own, or their parents’ laptops and mobile phones.

“During Covid, schools were closed students were always on digital platforms, but immediately we opened school we banned phones,” he said.

But Kahi says the ministry of education should consider introducing gadgets which will have guarded sites.

This will allow students to access only educational sites and approved content.

“Time has come for gadgets to be used in school by students. So that anytime we have educational shock we don’t close learning. We can close schools but learning continues,” he said.

Schools with very high populations, most of them national schools, might soon be managed by two principals if the new proposal by heads is implemented.

The principals proposed that the TSC introduces a position of senior chief principal so that schools with more students can have two principals.

This could mean that the schools will be run by a senior chief principal and a chief principal or a senior principal and a chief principal, depending on enrolment, space and facilities.

The heads also proposed that High schools with large student populations should have at least four deputy principals for proper management.

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Speaking at Sheikh Zayed Children’s Welfare Centre in Mombasa yesterday during the association’s 45th annual conference, Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Association (Kessha) chairman Indimuli Kahi, said that the management of such schools has become more complex.

“Secondary school principals face the risk of losing their jobs as they appear inefficient. One of the reasons that brought about these challenges is the 100 per cent primary school-secondary school transition policy which has massively increased the student population,” Indimuli said.

According to Indimuli,  schools that have two deputy principals should be considered for another two to effectively run the institutions noting that the student population in some of these schools has reached 3,000.

“We need additional deputy principals for the smooth running of schools and to lessen the burden on the principals,” said Indimuli.

He added: “In some of the schools, we have two deputy principals who are in charge of academics and administration. We need to consider adding another two.”

“The job of a principal is very risky today. If you blink an eye you are gone. If a school is burnt, the principal takes the whole blame.”

The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has ruled out and distanced itself from promotion of teachers based on higher qualifications attained while in service, claiming that is not its mandate.

TSC human resources director Julius Olayo, however, revealed that the promotion of teachers with masters and PhD degrees is a preserve of the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC).

“We have a number of you who went back to class and got masters and PhDs, but you are wondering why the commission is not considering those papers when you come back. These promotions are controlled by SRC and TSC can do nothing about it,” said Dr Olayo.

He said the TSC promotes teachers using the Career Progression Guidelines.

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Principals attending the Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Association (Kessha) conference on Thursday lamented that teachers had stagnated in one job group for many years while those with higher qualifications such as masters and PhDs are not recognised.

Kessha chairperson Kahi Indimuli said the challenge teachers and principals face is that promotions are pegged on the schools they are teaching, which has created unfairness.

“Let us not peg promotions on the category of school one is posted, as this has cost many deserving teachers promotions for years,” he said.

Mr Indimuli said a majority of principals in Job Group D3 have stagnated despite their long service.

“We need to ease off that stagnation,” he said, adding that those with higher education qualifications should be considered.

TSC legal services director Calvin Anyuor said the commission and SRC conducted job evaluations and separated the jobs of administrative teachers from those in the non-administrative cadres. He said any promotions must be conducted as advised by the SRC.

“The truth of the matter is that a principal is not just a teacher, and when that evaluation was done, they were given a higher grade than other teachers. Those grades are D3, D4 and D5,” he said, adding that to move from one grade to another, one must have served in the previous grade for three years.

However, Mr Anyuor said promotion to the next grade is not automatic as it must be done through a competitive process. He explained that the commission has continued to advertise to have teachers in job groups D1, and D2 moved to D3 and that’s why so many principals are in D3.

Mammoth crowds were witnessed at Sheikh Zayed Children’s Welfare Centre in Mombasa yesterday and part of today as school heads were scrambling for the ‘few chances’ of getting registered with the teacher professional development (TPD) training institutes present at the conference.

This occurred after the speech by the TSC Director for Quality Assurance and Standards Dr. Reuben Ntamburi and the continuous TSC/ KESSHA organised guidance and consultation sessions at the grounds.

 TSC directors present at the conference said that all teachers must be under the Teacher Professional Development (TPD) training as a statutory requirement.

According to the Director for Quality Assurance and Standards Reuben Ntamburi, TPD is a requirement under the law and no teacher will escape it. He also said teachers will continue to pay for the programme until parliament allocates funds.

“TPD is required under the law. The elephant in the room is the Sh6,000 for training. We are making efforts to convince parliament to allocate funds for it,” he said.

Dr Ntamburi said TSC has picked four universities to undertake the training of teachers on TPD, online. This will happen over five days from May 9.

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According to a witness present at the conference, deliberations by the TSC staff could have led to this turn of events. The witness, who sought anonymity, revealed that KEMI, MKU and Kenyatta University all erected tents at the grounds from Sunday to receive and register the heads for TPD Training, in a move that seemed somehow orchestrated prior to the event. Sources revealed also that KEMI registered the highest number of heads for TPD since it’s tent had not only the longest, but also the thickest queue.

“Principals are registering for the illegal TPD in mass. Don’t be deceived that TPD stopped and that no lessons are going on. These people have betrayed teachers a great deal,” revealed a witness.

Though very contentious, issues dealing with the  teacher professional development (TPD) , which visible shocked the school heads, were brought again at the conference.

The heads were shocked that even after the national assembly order to TSC to stop TPD until it meets certain conditions, the latter still has intentions of forcing teachers to pursue TPD and pay for the training before fulfilling any condition.

Kenya Secondary School principals have asked the government to fully avail the capitation fund to learning institutions as the Ministry of Education plans to roll out the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) in secondary schools.

Kenya Secondary Schools Head Association (KSSHA) chairman Indimuli Kahi further emphasized the need to ensure that teachers are equipped with the requisite training to teach in junior secondary school.

Kahi acknowledged that at the moment, many public schools are grappling with infrastructural, funding and staffing challenges and therefore the government should ensure a smooth transition by putting all measures in place.

“We want to know what the government has planned ahead of the transition because we know there are teething problems like teacher preparedness,” said Kahi.

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Kahi spoke on the sidelines of the ongoing 45th KESSHA annual headteachers’ conference at the Sheikh Zayed Hall in Mombasa, which has brought together over 10,000 delegates.

Principals and Headteachers of secondary schools will attend a five day Kenya Secondary School Heads Association(Kessha) conference next week.

The meeting is scheduled to start on 18th to 22nd April 2022. Initially the conference was scheduled to start on 4th till 8th April 2022 but was stopped by the teacher employer.

According to a letter addressed to the Kessha chairman,Kahi Indimuli,the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) sited the national exam marking exercise which will involve the school heads.

The Commission also sited the KCSE exams which marking exercise which will involve the school heads.

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The Commission also sited the KCSE exams which were ongoing and were to end on 4th April,the same day the conference was to start.

“During the marking exercise,Knec will engage approximately thirty thousand teachers, many of who are Principals who are also expected to attend the conference.

Most of the Chief Examiners,Deputy Chief Examiners,Examiners in charge and Team Leaders are school Principals,” said TSC Director of Staffing,Rita Wahome.

She said the participation of the Principals in the conference will adversely affect the administration and marking of the 2021 KCSE examinations and requested the Kessha to reschedule the conference to another date to allow smooth marking exercise.

The Kenya Secondary School Heads Associati a professional organization comprising of a 7,000 members drawn from public and private schools. Below is TSC’s letter to KESSHA

TEACHERS SERVICE COMMISSION 

Telephone Nairobi 2892000

When mplying please route

Ref.No

TSC/DS/KESSHA/64/VOLII

KILIMANJARO ROAD

UPPER HLL

PRIVATE BAG-8100

NAIRONL KENYA

Date:22″March,2022

Indimull Kahi,OGW,

National Chairman,

Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Association,

Trans-National Plaza,

P.O.Box 20658-00200,

NAIROBI

REQUEST FOR RE-SCHEDULING OF THE KESSHA CONFERENCE

The Commission has recelved a request from Kenya National Examlnation Coundl requesting for the rescheduling of the above conference due to the following reasons:

01 The ongoing administration of the 2021 KCSE Examinations that are ending on I” April,2022 and the marking will commence from 4-23* April,2022;

2.0 During the marking exercise,KNEC will engage approximately thirty thousand(30,000) teachers,many of whom are Prindpals who are also expected to attend the Conference.

3.0 Most of the Chief Examiners,Deputy Chief Examiners,Examiners In-charge and Team Leaders are school Prindpals;

4.0 The Principals are the Centre Organtzers in all the 35 Marking Centres

In view of the above,their participation in the conference will adversely affecr the administration and marking of the 2021 KCSE examination.The Council Is therefore humbly requesting for the rescheduling of the KESSHA Conference to another date that does not conflict with the marking exercise.

Any inconvenience caused Is regretted.

RITA W.WAHOME

FOR:SECRETARY/CHIEF EXECUTIVE

TEACHERS SERVICE COMMISSION

A section of secondary school heads who were delocalised claim that they are being subjected to tribal ridicule and intimidation by the schools’ boards of management in the local communities.

The principals raised complaints that the schools are also being micromanaged by the boards of management and education officials from the communities.

According to the heads, some Board of Management (BoM) chairs, who are signatories to the schools’ bank accounts, intentionally refuse to sign cheques to enable the teachers to withdraw money to facilitate institutions’ operations.

These sensitive allegations have been confirmed by Uasin Gishu County Director of Education Patrick Mbaka, who said that he is handling similar cases from the affected heads.

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“So far my office is dealing with two cases from Kapkoiga and Kerita schools in Kesses Sub-county,” said Mbaka.

“The board chairman and the education official are from the local community. They want to micromanage the school; they have frustrated me and I feel demoralised,” said one of the principals. The principal argued that though she is the custodian of the school’s finances, she has been reduced to “a mere clerk” as the BoM and education official run the show.

“The board chairman and education official have taken over the supervisory role. They dictate persons to be awarded tenders and how much to be paid. Some even call me a foreigner,” she said.

At a school in Bomet County, a principal had to seek the intervention of the county director of education to have the BoM chairman sign a cheque for the school operations. “When the principal from a different community was posted to the school, the BoM chairman refused to sign cheques until the education county director summoned him to his office,” said a source.

According to the source, the BoM was opposed to the transfer of the former principal who hails from the local community.

In another school, the BoM chair, who is a university don, ordered the principal to submit the names of suppliers and issued directives as to who should be paid first.

The heads have urged the government to protect them from interference from both the communities and education officials.

Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) warned that such happenings will compromise schools’ performance and urged the government to ensure the heads are protected from community interference.

Among the new HIV infections released by the government today, Children of school-going age have the highest statitistics.  Young girls are the most affected victims.

This year The National Aids Control Council (NACC) has recorded 21,404 new HIV among school going children, statistics that exceed half of the total number of new infections recorded in the whole country.

Cumulatively, NACC data shows that a total 41,728 new HIV cases were recorded this year, 25,062 of them being female and 16,666 male.

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Those aged 15 years and above recorded 34,610 new infections, with 6,806 cases documented among children aged 14 years or below.

Kisumu, Nairobi, Siaya, Homa Bay, Migori, Nakuru, Mombasa, Kisii, Kakamega and Kiambu are the top 10 counties with the highest numbers of new infections this year.

Finer details reveal that among school-going age brackets, 6,247 new infections were recorded among children aged 15-19 years. Of these new infections, 5,254 are girls and 993 boys. Majority in this age bracket are children in primary and secondary schools.

Additionally, 8,191 new HIV infections were recorded among youth aged 20-24 years. 5,166 of these are girls, while 3,014 are boys, mostly in universities and colleges.

For those aged between 25 and 29, a total 6,976 new HIV infections were reported. Of these, 3,911 are girls and another 3,065 boys.

Future Employees and entrepreneurs

Children who join schools in Standard One aged between five and six are expected to sit KCPE after eight years aged between 13 and 14. They are further expected to pursue secondary education between ages 15 and 18.Age 19 to 23, these children should be in universities and colleges pursuing various courses. At between ages 24 and 29, they should be employees and entrepreneurs, yet most of that age group are already Victims of HIV.

Only 12,923 new infections were recorded among Kenyans of ages 30 to 60 and 593 among Kenyans aged between 61 and 79. The new HIV infections in the age brackets of schoolchildren but also creating hopelessness among parents, who are determined to see their children serving the country in various capacities in future. The new cases are projected to rise further due to prolonged school closures.

According to Heads in primary and secondary schools, civic education and sensitization initiatives on HIV have greatly reduced in most institutions.

“Generally Kenyans dropped their guard and thought that this disease had subsided, and this has led to many new infections rising among children,” said Kahi Indimuli, Kenya Secondary School Heads Association national chairman.

“Parents seem to have left everything to teachers and this has exposed the children to these infections,” added Mr. Indimuli.

Education activist Muthoni Ouko, however, said the stay at home had been long, noting that this might have contributed to a big part of the infections.

“Parents have to work to fend for their families and in the process, they may not always monitor their children’s movements and this is the lapse that leads to infections and social ills,” said Muthoni.

Kenya Primary School Head Teachers Association Chairman Nicholas Gathemia blamed the cases on little or no guiding and counseling sessions at home.

“Children are spending more time at home now and so if some schools also relax the practice, then children are exposed,” said Mr. Gathemia.

National Parents Association Chair Nicholas Maiyo said parents might have abdicated their roles, but added that the prolonged school closure could have also contributed to most infections.

The Ministry Of Education and the Teacher’s Service Commission are deeply troubled as they try to devise a mechanism that schools will apply to recover a whole academic year. The schools are not spared either since the heads and tutors are in the same mess.

This awkward situation is as a result of the spiking cases of covid-19, which have caused an extension of school reopening dates for most classes. Currently, only grade 4, standard 8 and form four learners are in school.

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Education stake holders have proposed reduction in lesson periods and class work, and extension of the learning weeks,  as some of the options that schools can apply to recover the 2020 academic year.

The Magoha task force has also proposed elimination of summative assessment and adoption of formative assessment.  The task force argues that summative assessment, which relies on school based exams, consumes not less than two weeks every term. Should a formative assessment be adopted, the two weeks can be saved for extensive syllabus coverage.

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KEPSHA and KESSHA have jointly proposed synchronization of first term and second term work, ahead of the January 2021 reopening to ease syllabus coverage.

“We can reduce weekend and holiday breaks and adopt crash learning programmes,” suggested Nicholas Gathemia, the National KEPSHA chairman.

Gathemia strongly advocates for adjustment of school reporting time (for teachers and students), and adjustment of the duration of each lesson. In his suggestion, lessons should start an hour earlier and end an hour later. Should his suggestion be adopted, schools will begin lessons at 7.00 AM and end after 5:00 PM. This would demand that both staff and students must arrive in school by latest 6:30 AM.

National KESSHA chairman Kahi Indimuli, was for the idea of reviewing lesson durations to increase the number of lessons in a day. He suggested that lesson duration be reduced from 40 minutes to 30 minutes. To ensure more time recovery, Indimuli also suggested that subject choices be made in form two, instead of form three so that learners don’t strain so much with what they will eventually drop.

In his own wisdom, KUPPET secretary general, Akello Misori, felt that the ministry should increase school days from 5 days in a week to 7 days to create more study time. His suggestion would see teachers and students going to school from Monday to Sunday. “A week may not be five days. Ways must be found to utilize weekends and holidays, or half term breaks reduced,” suggested Misori.

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The ministry of education is yet to roll out a rigorous academic programme, which will compress two terms in 4 months, so as to avoid delays in transition. After KCSE and KCPE exams, a fresh school calendar will start in June.

Akello Misori wants some topics to be eliminated so that only essential ones are covered. “We may not teach everything. We just need to teach critical areas that are measurable and have impact on learning and progression,” Said the KUPPET boss.

The teachers in the task force felt that what ought to have been covered in the lost terms could be carried forward to the next class, a suggestion that the Kenya institute for curriculum development,  (KICD), rejected instantly, arguing that the curriculum must be fully covered.

KICD director, Charles Ongondo said, “We break curriculum coverage down to per week and innovative ways can be found to cover more work without reducing content.” His argument was that learning is a continuity thing and everything the learner learns in the present class is very critical for continuity in the next class.

Kenya Secondary School Heads Association (KESSHA) Chairman, Mr. Kahi Indimuli has reported that Covid-19 no longer scares learners. The heads association boss noted that learners only follow covid-19 protocols when they see a teacher nearby.

His KEPSHA counterpart, Nicholas Gathemia, has agreed with his sentiments, saying that teachers have a tiresome task of enforcing the Covid-19 safety protocols among careless learners, who have so far dropped their guard.

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According to the heads’ associations, students are back to their normal school lives, barely one month after the partial reopening of schools. Learners are even seen crowding at market places, football joints and village football tournaments, yet they cannot fear being infected in schools.

This comes a few days after President Kenyatta issued a state directive, ordering all learners who are currently at home to stay home till January 2021.

Education cabinet secretary, George Magoha had earlier on expressed his fears over the spiking covid -19 cases. “Yes, Covid is spiking and it is not only in this country. What we are grappling with is whether to open for the other children or not.”

Indimuli informed, “Most learners are not wearing face masks, they do not care so much about proper use and hygiene of the masks and they also do not wash hands as frequently as it were before and this is a new challenge in schools,”

“These learners now think that after slightly above two weeks in school without any infections they are now good to go and can overlook some guidelines,” said Indimuli. He expressed his embarrassment with learners, who have abruptly retreated to the old normal and no longer even apply the social distancing rules.

Learners in boarding schools not only disobey the social distance rules in their dormitories, but also in their classrooms and dining halls.

“In the absence of teachers, these learners just interact as if it is back to normal,” a school head noted.

As per Gathemia’s statement, schools have not received mitigation measures to handle covid-19 challenges. He noted that teachers lack adequate sensitization on management of covid -19 in schools. “This poses a high risk to the teacher, parents and learners daily,” he added.

However, the two heads associations felt that reclosing schools will increase the risk of community transmissions of covid-19.