By Luke Awich
Junior Secondary School teachers now want to be delinked from primary school leadership to eliminate what they claim are unnecessary friction.
The teachers have been operating under primary school heads where the junior schools are domiciled. Some station heads have reportedly compelled newly recruited Junior Secondary School teachers to teach primary school classes.
The majority of the JSS teachers are graduates who, under the 8-4-4 curriculum would have been posted to teach secondary schools.
JSS teachers national chairman Omari Omari said it is time for the teachers to operate independently. Omar was speaking in Nairobi where they also advocated for an independent trade union, arguing that the two teachers’ unions have not proved effective in advocating for their rights.
Most teachers are either members of the Kenya National Union of Teachers or Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers.
Speaking during World Teachers' Day luncheon organised by Nairobi Senator Ediwn Sifuna, the teachers demanded that the government comes up with clear command system on the management of JSS teachers. Omari said the current system that put them under primary school head teachers is untenable.
"Allow the JSS teachers to be independent, most schools are currently crime scenes where JSS teachers want to fight head teachers and head teachers want to fight our teachers," he added.
ECDE, primary and secondary school teachers, JSS teachers as well as Kuppet and Teachers Service Commission officials attended the luncheon.
They called on the Nairobi senator to come up with legislation that delinks them from primary school management.
Omar also called for having teachers’ representative at the TSC just like the case of other independent commissions. TSC, which handles the human resource function for teachers, has been operating without a slot for teachers in its ranks.
Sifuna while supporting inclusion of teachers to TSC said it was amongst the ODM proposal to the Building Bridges Initiative, which collapsed in 2022 after courts found it unconstitutional.
“Under the BBI, it was ODM that pushed for this and even proposed the formation of Health Service Commission to address matters of health but unfortunately this did not come to pass,” Sifuna said.
“It is high time we pushed for this to ensure the well-being of teachers.”