Let high school heads parley find solutions

This week’s meeting of secondary school headteachers and the country’s education chiefs could not have come at a more appropriate time, when the sector is faced with turbulence and increased uncertainty. The week-long meeting, bringing together some 9,000 school heads, the Education Cabinet Secretary, senior officials of the ministry’s agencies, union leaders and other stakeholders presents an opportunity to confront the critical challenges and suggest the way forward.

One of the most pressing matters is the huge staffing deficit in secondary schools, at 58,291. The magnitude of this shortfall is exacerbated by the government’s campaign to drive increased enrolment in the schools to achieve a 100 per cent transition rate from primary to secondary schools. Besides, this campaign has led to severe congestion in classes, libraries, dormitories and libraries in addition to overburdening the teachers. The net result is poor quality education.

Many principals work in deplorable conditions, but are reluctant to speak out for fear of reprisals. They now have a golden chance to lay bare the truth to their bosses, suggest solutions and demand action.

Another challenge schools face is chronic subsidy cash delays and shortfalls in remittances, leaving many schools indebted to suppliers and unable to meet their daily financial obligations. There ought to be a strict deadline by which the cash should reach schools, which must be strictly adhered to. Only then will schools be able to budget and plan their calendars with certainty.

The capitation problems are made worse by the failure of the National Education Management Information System (Nemis) to capture the details of all students. The government is basing its distribution of money to schools on the Nemis details, yet headteachers have complained that many of the students’ birth certificates bear the same serial numbers, resulting in rejection by the civil registration system and, therefore, less cash for the schools. The meeting should find lasting solutions to this.

The newly introduced 2-3-6-3-3 competency-based curriculum to replace the 8-4-4 is, itself, fraught with challenges that threaten to ground it before it is fully rolled out. For example, it’s not clear how learners will be examined to transit from one level to the other and whether Grades Seven and Eight will be in the primary or junior high school section. The Kenya National Union of Teachers has raised serious questions about the procedure used in adopting the system and the country’s preparedness for it.

The conference must not be a talking shop but a platform for deliberating on and tackling myriad challenges afflicting the sector and get solutions to benefit millions of learners in high school.