The Ministry of Education is in the process of making changes in the Basic Education Act which will enable it to recruit school managers in all public learning schools.
The Ministry is of the opinion that school managers will help headteachers to run schools more efficiently.
The Ministry’s proposals could be a seismic shift from the current norm whereby the Cabinet Secretary will have the powers of appointing school managers to oversee the management of resources of education. This will render headteachers powerless in most of the management roles.
The school manager will be responsible for implementing policies and guidelines in the institutions of basic education.
The ministry is intending to change the definition of a ‘manager’ in changes that will require the recruitment of people who shall be responsible for the management of schools.
This predictably will cause a lot of friction between the Ministry of Education and the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) if the proposed changes go through.
A headteacher also known as the principal, headmaster, or headmistress, is a teacher who is in charge of a school.
They have the responsibility of managing the school and making sure every aspect of a school runs smoothly every day.
Teachers’ unions are also opposing the move. The Kenya Post-primary Teachers (KUPPET) was the first to oppose the Ministry of Education’s plans of directly recruiting hiring school managers.
According to KUPPET, the move is the Ministry of Education’s plan to illegally grab human resource management from the Teachers Service Commission (TSC).
“Parallel employment of school managers would rewind the clock on teacher management to the days TSC was constitutionally mandated to manage the teaching force,” said KUPPET Secretary-General Akello Misori.
“During that period, chaos reigned in schools, affecting the provision of education services,” said Akello Misori.
The union said that apart from the plan being another burden to taxpayers, it will also be unfair to headteachers and principals since they have undergone various courses including financial training, before taking up the roles of managing schools.
“To help schools run better, the government should establish a policy for them to hire specialized professionals such as accountants, sports coaches, and psychologists, subject to the capacity of schools to pay,” said Mr. Misori.
The union is also opposing the abolition of the National Education Board (NEB) which is currently mandated under law to advise the Cabinet Secretary on education policy matters.
The Union notes that the decision-making will be left at the discretion of the Cabinet Secretary. The input of independent voices in influencing policy in the sector of education will be locked out.
KUPPET wants the CS Education Prof George Magoha to stop the proposals before they are made into law.
There is a feeling that the Ministry does is not happy with their lack of control of more than 30,000 heads of public schools who get billions of capitation money every year.
Sources close to the Ministry are also not happy with not having the responsibility of managing teachers who manage infrastructure and are in charge of the safety of children in schools.
In the proposals, a manager will be defined as “a person who has been appointed by the Cabinet Secretary to oversee the management of education resources and implementation of policies and guidelines in basic education institutions”.
At the moment, under the Act, a manager is defined as “a person who has been appointed by the Cabinet Secretary in consultation with the proprietor through regulations to coordinate and oversee implementation of education policies and guidelines in non-public basic education institutions and performs delegated teacher management function”.
In the new definition of a school manager, the ministry is pushing to have the powers to hire new people to manage schools. The definition of ‘principal’ remains unchanged.
The Amendment Bill (2020) is awaiting the National Assembly debate with reports indicating a major education stakeholders meeting will be called next week for discussions on the issue to be conducted.
Powers of managing schools will be taken away from heads of schools. This will mean that the Ministry will recruit new staff who shall oversee the management of the huge chunks of money under the custody of schools. This will include infrastructure and management of learners.
The interpretation has been based on the fact that there has not been any proposed change to how the word ‘principal’ is presently defined.
In the Act, a principal’s meaning is assigned to it under the Teacher Service Commission Act.
This should effectively mean that secondary school heads shall still be hired, promoted, and disciplined under TSC.
TSC insists that it is allowed by law to hire and manage all teachers under the payroll of the government.
KUPPET said that heads of schools should continue with their responsibilities under the current employment and reporting frameworks.
CS George, when appearing before the National Assembly Education Committee, gave an indication of plans to take control of schools and teachers.
Magoha urged MPs to review the current law that does not give his office powers to be in charge of teachers.
“We are the only Ministry in the region that is not in charge of teachers. We are the only sector head that is not in charge of teachers,” said Prof George Magoha.
“It is about time we thought about it because everybody thinks I am in charge of teachers. I have left the wisdom to you,” he added.