No doubt, being randy is not part of the job description for teachers. Because of this very negative aspect in the teaching profession, the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) struck off its teaching roll 216 teachers who were found guilty of engaging in sexual acts with their students.
Under the auspices of the Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Association (Kessha), 7,300 head teachers began congregating in Mombasa for their annual meeting yesterday amid warnings from TSC that they will be held personally responsible for cases of sexual impropriety reported in their individual schools. Sexual molestation in schools has been on an upward spiral lately, yet the Teachers Service Commission only gets to hear about such cases from the public. The reason for this is that some head teachers have attempted cover ups.
The head teachers’ meeting in Mombasa also comes at an opportune time when grandstanding between the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut), the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet), the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) and the Education ministry threaten to paralyse learning and inhibit operations.
Ever since the abolition of school ranking and the gazettement of new school fees guidelines through gazette notice no 1555 of 11th March 2015, the teachers unions, Knut and Kuppet took this as an affront to teachers and have since been agitating for the removal of Prof Jacob Kaimenyi, the Cabinet Secretary for Education.
It has become the unions' refrain to call for strikes every time they fail to agree on anything that the ministry of education proposes or undertakes, even when it is on policy issues over which they have no mandate. Strikes only serve to hurt students and impact negatively on teachers because when finally schools register poor performances, they take the rap, not the unions. On the other hand, the removal of Prof Kaimenyi is not the magical wand that will fix the troubled education sector, as the unions want all and sundry to believe. Both parties must find a middle ground, embrace constructive dialogue to see some of the problems unravel by themselves.
Despite a government ban on sending students away from school for failure to clear fee balances, schools have persisted in doing so, ultimately affecting the learning calendar and generally having negative effects on academics. Many schools post poor results as a direct consequence of these interruptions. But even as we empathise with poor students and many overburdened parents, we appreciate the fact that schools must have cash to operate.
The advent of free education saw the government undertake to subsidise secondary education and only last year increased capitation to schools. The tragedy is that the government has consistently failed to honour its part of the bargain, making it extremely difficult for schools to operate seamlessly when funds are routinely disbursed very late. Last week, many schools threatened to close earlier because the government has not released requisite funds; this should not be the case.
The head teachers meeting should also seek to address other issues like absenteeism, dereliction of duty and alcoholism. Absenteeism only helps in compounding the paucity of teachers in schools even as this calls for urgent measures to remedy the situation. School principals should not unduly criticise the government over the hiring of 5000 more teachers, because it is a good start from which some benefits accrue.
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