A teachers union has opposed a proposal by the Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms to demote primary school heads without degrees starting January next year.
Kenya National Union of Teachers secretary general Nelson Oyuu called the proposal “unfair and the worst labour practice the country will implement on the teachers”.
He was speaking in Mombasa after gracing the Knut coast council regional meeting at Ronald Ngala Primary School in Mvita.
“We are prepared, and we have our teeth out to bite where necessary so that our teachers remain comfortable as they were. If anything, some of these heads you are referring to are some of the best heads,” Oyuu said.
“It is basically administration, and we all went to college to learn basic administration and qualified highly.”
Oyuu said though they fully support the changes and reforms in the education sector as proposed by the working party, they had reservations with a number of proposals.
He reiterated Knut’s commitment to supporting primary school heads that do not have degrees, saying they will present proposals to the working party to allow the heads without degrees to go to university and retain their positions.
Oyuu alluded that 99 per cent of primary school heads were graduates, lashing out at those who might think otherwise.
He said any head teacher who is not a degree holder should proceed to a higher learning institution to attain the qualification.
The working party had in their proposals suggested that primary head teachers in schools hosting Junior Secondary Schools at the time of the implementation of the new Competency Based Curriculum head the institutions for an interim period lapsing December 30, 2023.
It proposed the creation of comprehensive schools that will incorporate the current pre-primary schools, primary school and JSS in the same compound under a single head teacher.
Current head teachers lacking the qualification are to be given lesser roles.
The Knut secretary general welcomed the proposal to have comprehensive schools, saying the issues of primary, junior secondary and senior secondary school shall come to a stop such that children start school at ECD up to grade 12 in the same school.
With this in place, Oyuu said that they shall have one head of an institution without causing a lot of confusion.
“We have had a lot of gaps that ought to have been filled because the whole situation in the implementation of JSS was a bit jumbled up. Grade 7 students have transitioned to JSS, but where are the teachers?” Oyuu posed.
He said though Knut supported the idea of domiciling JSS in primary schools, they must escalate the idea of having comprehensive schools.
Oyuu also raised concerns over the issue of hiring ECDE teachers in the country.
Knut in their proposals, he said, stated that basic education begins from ECDE all the way to Form 4.
He said while grade 1 to 12 is seen to be manned by the ministry and the Teachers Service Commission bringing teachers together on employment, ECD was most unfortunate that counties had to step in to employ teachers.
The working party has proposed that the remuneration of ECDE teachers come from the TSC.
“Counties are employing teachers with TSC numbers, it beats logic for one to be holding the number but are employed by the county. TSC must now employ these teachers because this will be in line with teachers in terms of quality assurance and even in work in our schools,” Oyuu said.
The Knut secretary general also raised issues with the working party proposal to reduce TSC powers to the benefit of the Education ministry.
He said that Knut had proposed for a clear path in matters of quality assurance by the TSC and the parent ministry.
“What we wanted was a clear definition of roles without antagonism and without hitting at each other. We made it clear in our proposals that we cannot afford to sit in matters of conflict between TSC and the ministry,” he said.
He also congratulated TSC for rolling out the 2023-2027 strategic plan that will be implemented at a cost of Sh70 billion.
The plan, he said, was obvious in most areas apart from the teacher remuneration aspect which he said needs to be re-looked at.
He said Knut was prepared to push TSC to the table so that teacher remuneration is also considered within the strategic plan.
Earlier on TSC had made a proposal for Sh2 billion for teachers promotion, which was welcomed although the National Treasury reduced it to Sh1 billion.
“We still want TSC to sit with us and open the avenue for negotiations once more, the SRC stopped us from negotiating anything monetary in 2021," Oyuu said.
"But now that it lifted the caveat about negotiations, we are out and have written to TSC and have given them 14 days to bring us to the table so that we start a review of the non-monetary CBA we signed in 2021.”