Give Kenyan head teachers a break!

Former principal of Alliance High School Christopher Khaemba.

Kenya’s schooling system is in turmoil and many people are wondering what could have gone wrong. Students have been acting strangely of late, and the public is worried sick.

Some weeks back, students from different schools in central Kenya were found abusing drugs and engaging in lewd acts in a passenger vehicle they had pooled resources and hired on closing day.

Before schools closed at the beginning of August, there were several cases of schools being set on fire, and students going on strike, because, some teachers said, they did not want to sit their end term examinations.

These acts, according to educationists, signal deeper societal problems, and it is not easy to put a finger on any one of them and find a solution.

However, Christopher Khaemba, the former principal of Alliance High School who is regarded as one of Africa’s leading educationists, feels one of the problems is the way head teachers are treated.

But at the same time, he admits that “there are very many things that we have not done right.”

“Head teachers are over-regulated to the extent that they are more worried about conforming to regulations and less concerned about inspiring students,” he says, adding that currently, head teachers report to too many entities and individuals.

“They have report to the schools’ boards of management, the Ministry of Education and the Teachers Service Commission,” says Khaemba, who became the dean of African Leadership Academy in South Africa in 2008 after leaving Alliance.

“They have also been caught up in the tussles between their employer, the Teachers Service Commission and the parent ministry, over managerial structures.”

He feels that the few powers that headteachers ever had have been curtailed further, and they have no free hand in making decisions about their students in the schools they manage.

“The ministry should give them a lot more leeway in dealing with school affairs, management of teachers, students and resources,” says Khaemba, who is currently the secretary for education in Nairobi City County. “The head teacher should have a final say over the affairs of the school.”

When they are free, they tend to be more creative and can easily come up with solutions for problems that face their respective schools.

Currently though, they are busy trying to conform to, and to implement one-size-fits-all solutions they are given by their bosses who do not know the different challenges both teachers and students in different schools face.

“Excess supervision of school heads stifles their creativity and drives their energy in wrong directions as they struggle to observe the numerous regulations,” he says. “This happens mostly to African heads of schools.”

He says that when he started teaching in Alliance in 1984, some institutions, such as Starehe Boys Centre and School were managed by white people, and they would not be told how to run those schools.

“No one would tell [Dr. Geoffrey William] Griffin how to run Starehe,” he says of the founding director of Starehe Boys’ Centre and School, who managed the school from its founding in 1959 till his death in 2005.

Administrative decisions rested on his shoulders without intervention from higher powers and the school’s performance in national examinations was exemplary.

“The Ministry and the TSC should focus more on the competencies of head teachers and the recruitment process should identify those who can do the job and then they should be left to do it.”

According Khaemba, who was the head teacher at Friends Kamusinga before being spirited to Alliance to help put things in order, there should be clearly defined procedures of recruiting head teachers.

“In many instances, the recruitment process of head teachers is murky. It is not clear how they are promoted and it seems considerations other than merit are used.”

The former principal has issues with schools’ boards of management. “When the board is chaired by a person who does not understand education-related issues, it becomes weak and cannot give appropriate support in terms of advice and marshaling of resources.

“The boards should be made up of people who have managerial skills and the capacity to to mobilise resources, since the government can never have enough resources for improving facilities in schools.”

Another reason that is making schools difficult to manage is the population of students, especially in the so-called “big” schools such as Alliance. This year, it admitted 400 First Formers.

“When the school does not have a head who can decline to admit more students because the school has reached its maximum capacity then that becomes another problem,” he says. “Schools are expanding, but the facilities are not and students have to learn in a very unfriendly and stressful atmosphere.”

The over-enrolment also ensures that they cannot adequately participate in extracurricular activities such as sports which is one of the avenues through which to let out steam.

“Students are supposed to be full of energy but when you cram 1500 students in a school that was meant for 500, and not provide, for instance, extra basketball and football pitches, then they will have no place to channel that energy.

“They then become frustrated, and irritable and easy to be misled and they can start engaging in wicked ways as a means of relieving stress.”

Then there is the overburdened curriculum, which, according to Khaemba, educators have consistently complained about but they are not being listened to.

“Teachers are in a hurry to finish the syllabus so they keep the students in classes for longer hours and they have no time for other activities such as sports.

“We need to leave management to competent teachers who can customise the timetable adequately,” he says.

Even then, he feels that it is not right to ban holiday tuitions.

“Teachers must understand students. Slow learners may need extra time and teachers should instead be guided and empowered on the effects of teaching students for long periods of time and left to decide how to go about it.”

Currently, there isn’t a properly structured programme for professional development and Khaemba feels that performance-based incentives for teachers should be introduced to motivate them. The benefits will trickle down to students.

“Opportunities for growth are limited and for teachers to attain certain levels in terms of competencies and income, they have to moonlight,” he observes.

“A system can be introduced either by the Ministry or the TSC whereby teachers sit professional examinations every three years and then they are upgraded when they pass as it is done in the Engineer’s Board.”

He says that currently, teachers have nothing to work towards other than becoming head teachers.

“And how many head teachers can we have?” he poses, then adds that committed, professional and hardworking teachers should be distinguished through a professional incentive scheme.

Away from the staff rooms, can the problems in schools be symptomatic of the malaise in the society?

Khaemba thinks so.

“In the eighties and nineties, I used to be very proud to invite Members of Parliament to Alliance to speak to the boys because they were role models,” he says. “Nowadays, students cannot point out role models in terms of leadership as they are few and far between.”

He also says that little resources in schools are not being utilised fully on elements that promote success.

“There are cases of corruption in admission and management of resources in schools.

“Heads should be open about usage of resources instead of just asking for more money and parents and students do not know what it is spent on.”

He says that when head teachers are open about their expenditure, the students are able to understand the challenges the school faces and the available opportunities. This makes them develop a strong sense of loyalty to the school.

“But when they are reduced to just paying school fees, which sometimes involves a lot of struggle, they only become discouraged and see the school as an oppressor, an enemy to be rebelled against.”
When it comes to discipline, he maintains that caning is not a solution.

“Head teachers should set up the rules and regulations in a way that the students feel part of the decision-making units that include the prefects,” he says.

“They should be confident that when they raise issues, the prefects will take them seriously.

“Head teachers should not disregard students who have differing opinions that seem to criticise them.”