School heads upbeat ahead of annual conference

About 10,000 primary school heads will gather in Mombasa for a week-long annual conference starting tomorrow.

Top officials of the Kenya Primary Schools Heads Association (Kepsha) led by chairman Nicholas Gathemia (pictured) have already arrived in Mombasa.

Delegates started arriving in the coastal city yesterday as the association’s top brass was reported to be meeting in a hotel.

Primary and secondary school head teachers have made Mombasa their destination of choice for their annual conferences that spare afternoons for leisure at the beach. Mr Gathemia said this year’s theme is “Management of the current reforms in the education sector and school administrators’ role.”

The government has been pushing implementation of the Competency based Curriculum (CBC) amid resistance from the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) Secretary General Wilson Sossion who has borne the brunt of the Teachers Service Commission (TSC).

Knut has likened implementation of the education reforms to a train leaving the station without a driver, arguing that teachers have not been adequately prepared for CBC.

Meanwhile, Gathemia said the conference will be opened on Tuesday by Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha.

Others speakers lined up are TSC chairperson Lydia Nzomo, Education Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang’ and Kenya National Examination Council CEO Mercy Karogo.

Others are Kepsha chairman and president of the African Confederation of Principals Indimuli Kahi and director, Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development, Julius Juan.

Last year, the Kepsha conference was marked with acrimony when delegates protested against the top brass over monthly deductions by the association.

They heckled and rejected the then national chairman Shem Ndolo even as they accused him of opposing a national strike that had been announced by Knut.