Why this finger-pointing between teachers and CS Kaimenyi will not stop soon

Education Cabinet Secretary Prof. Jacob Kaimenyi

NAIROBI: On April 25, 2012, Teachers Service Commission (TSC) wrote a letter to senior Ministry of Education officials, alerting them that the ‘new Commission’ was taking back the teacher management duties previously done by ministry officials.

Citing section 249 (2) (b) of the Constitution of Kenya 2010, TSC Chief Executive Officer Gabriel Lengoiboni said the TSC was now an independent commission seeking to realign itself to the new Constitution.

He said the commission had identified personnel to be deployed as County Directors (CDs) to take charge of the ‘teacher management functions’.

“Consequently, your Agency in regard to the Teacher Management functions as per the TSC Act (Cap 212) of the Laws of Kenya and Legal Notice No.95 of 1971 is hereby revoked with effect from May 1, 2012,” Lengoiboni said.

He added: “You are therefore required to hand over all records on Teacher Management to the TSC County Director.”

This meant TSC had stripped all the Provincial Directors of Education (PDEs) and District Education Officers (DEOs) of their powers to manage teachers’ affairs in a radical move to entrench itself as a constitutional commission.

Previously, DEOs had the powers to hire, promote, discipline and transfer any teacher, a function they performed as agents of TSC.

With the TSC letter, the responsibility of managing teachers’ issues was transferred to the TSC County Directors as required by the new Constitution.

The advent of the new Constitution also did away with the positions of PDEs and DEOs, offices that were later replaced by County Directors and Sub County Education Directors respectively.

A senior Ministry Education official Sunday traced the incessant conflicts between the ministry and TSC to the ‘revocation of agency’ by TSC.

“This was the start of a major power struggle between TSC officers and Ministry of Education officials. The latest tussle over the management of school heads as gazetted by Cabinet Secretary Jacob Kaimenyi stem from that letter,” said the official.

“When Kaimenyi assumed office, he found frustrated staff. His officers had no powers at all. He is now held hostage because his county staff feel they do not have any control over teachers and that is why they want the ‘agency’ clawed back through the regulations,” said the well-placed ministry official.

Section 5 (3) of the contentious regulations empowers the ministry to sack a school head who has misused school resources.

“Where any impropriety is established on the part of a head of an institution, the Cabinet Secretary shall revoke forthwith the designation of such head of institution as the accounting officer and request the TSC for a replacement.”

A TSC Commissioner told The Standard that if this section of regulations is implemented, the ministry will have taken back the powers.

“It is the county staff who will perform the duties of revoking designations of school heads on behalf of the CS. Kaimenyi will not know the day-to-day management of schools. This means the ministry county officials will be more powerful again,” said a TSC Commissioner.

Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) and the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers have vowed to push for the sacking of Kaimenyi for coming up with “unacceptable” policies at the ministry.

But Kaimenyi has defended the regulations. “The truth is that the regulations have not interfered with the power of TSC to appoint teachers and to exercise disciplinary authority should circumstances warrant,” he said.

Sunday, Kaimenyi reiterated he does not intend to usurp powers of the TSC, through the regulations he gazetted recently.

Speaking at the Methodist Church in Kenya-Kinoru, at a fundraiser graced by Deputy President William Ruto, Prof Kaimenyi said: “I am no subject of impunity. At no time will I ever usurp TSC roles to hire, fire or discipline teachers. I will never do that. The only thing I want is to make teachers and principals to be accountable.”

He said the Education ministry was on a path to delivering quality and affordable education for Kenyan children.

Kaimenyi last week said the regulations he gazetted were only meant to “regularise the authority of school heads which they have been exercising in managing schools”.

“The resources include funds provided under the free primary education and free day secondary education,” he said.

Kaimenyi said the resources under the management of school heads also include fees charged from parents, infrastructure development funds, money from Constituency Development Funds (CDF) and grants from development partners.

“School heads have handled this money and co-ordinate its use without any contractual or legal arrangements to account for its use. What the regulations have done is to make the head of a school an accounting officer, an authority delegated to the Cabinet secretary through section 53 (2) of the Basic Education Act,” said Kaimenyi.

After the promulgation of the Constitution, TSC and the ministry separately deployed their county directors.

Multiple interviews with both TSC CDs and Ministry of education CDs reveal the ‘bad blood’ between the two bodies stems from revocation of agencies by TSC in 2012.

BOYCOTTED MEETING

“There has never been peace between the two sets of county officers,” said one of the directors from Central region. The tension has been so real that some directors were even denied use of toilets in some offices because of seniority conflicts,” said the director.

Last year, TSC directors boycotted a meeting called by Kaimenyi to discuss In-Service Education and Training (Inset) Policy.

The directors said they were not happy with the manner in which the ministry discredited their commission.

“It is unfortunate that the invitation letters came to us directly and not through our boss. This means that someone highly disrespects our chief executive officer and for that we shall not attend their meetings,” said one of the TSC CD.

Education PS Belio Kipsang and Lengoiboni last year told the CDs to stop fighting and serve learners.

“As you fight, it is the child that is suffering. We are all working for the good of the child,” said Kipsang.

Lengoiboni said the roles of the two sets of directors are distinct but complementary. “There is no conflict of duties. It is all clear. And you must work together,” said Lengoiboni.

TSC and ministry sources said the bitter rivalry at the county has been more pronounced over the question of seniority.

“There was that perception that TSC CDs were of higher job groups and that they were recruited competitively. But ministry CDs never went through rigorous interviews. They were simply deployed, some even were of lower job groups,” said the ministry officer.

A circular released by former Education PS George Godia explained the distinct roles of the directors.

Godia said ministry CDs will implement the policies and programmes of the ministry and ensure quality and standards of education in the counties.

TSC CDs’ duties include facilitating processing of teachers’ registration, managing deployment of teachers and co-ordination of recruitment.