By John Kariuki
The Government’s decision to transfer 1,500 head teachers in public schools across the country late last year has several career lessons for all employees.
The State says the move is meant to improve standards of education by reshuffling school managers who have reached their zenith, ostensibly for lack of fresh ideas. Moreover, the Government says parents have accused some head teachers of laxity occasioned by staying for too long in one station.
The first lesson you should learn from this is an employer can take any measure to ensure service delivery and the survival of an organisation. The second lesson is that the managerial staff are often the most vulnerable when push comes to shove. The buck stops with them.
"By sacrificing head teachers, who may not have any control on extrinsic factors that affect education like the post election violence, mungiki menace or food shortage is the way corporate thought works," says Vitalis Oloo, a teacher in Eastern province.
Shiphira Wambui, a teacher in Thika thinks that these mass transfers will affect the morale of the head teachers themselves, and that of the teachers they had been working with.
And herein is the third lesson. Often an employer is seen as uncaring when effecting unpopular changes that ultimately fit in the organisation’s strategic plan.
Wambui further questions the wisdom of measuring teachers’ value by the sole parameter of grades in national examination.
"Did they support pupils to realise their dreams in games, music and drama?" she asks.
Different view
And this is the fourth lesson. In many workplaces, employees may have a different view of how output should be measured. However, to the employer it is often the cold production statistics that matter. Figures can be defended at boards, and shareholders’ meetings.
Kimley Lagat, a teacher in Nakuru praises this move.
"These transfers will allow for injection of fresh blood in the helm of school leadership and allow others to progress in their career," he says.
This is the fifth lesson. No one is indispensable in a workplace. If you are a boss you can be moved to break ‘friendship’ you have formed with clients, suppliers, local people and politicians, which have become untenable to your corporation. The parochial thinking that comes with complacency gets broken.
An education official, who requested anonymity, says that some of the head teachers had stayed in one school for more than 10 years.
"In such scenarios, chances are that such school heads have toothless school boards, and they basically run the show alone. Others have business interests in the area and often supply their institutions goods by proxy, which is against regulations," the official says.
This is the sixth lesson. Employers will move their staffers to ensure that they don’t develop conflicting interests.
The education official revealed that some head teachers had been demoted to the level of classroom teachers in the latest shuffle.
"This action was based on assessment reports. The affected heads were deemed not to be adding any value to their schools on account of deteriorating performance in national examinations for some years," he added.
This is the seventh and final lesson you should learn. If you don’t perform at your current designation, you will probably be demoted to a level commensurate with the competence you demonstrate. This is assuming that your employer is kind enough to spare you the sack.
