• Kenya Secondary School Heads Association chair Indimuli Kahi said the government’s 100 per cent transition program has seen a sharp increase in the number of students joining secondary schools.
• However, there has not been a corresponding increase in funding leading to secondary schools using other means to cope with the bulging student population increase.
Image: JOHN CHESOLI
At least 7,500 secondary school teachers will gather at the Kenya School of Revenue Administration in Mombasa to among other things interrogate the Competency Based Curriculum, and the looming crisis in public secondary schools due to underfunding by the government.
Kenya Secondary School Heads Association chair Indimuli Kahi said the government’s 100 per cent transition programme has resulted in a sharp increase in the number of students joining secondary schools.
However, there has not been a corresponding increase in funding, leading to secondary schools using other means to cope with the bulging student population.
He said a survey done by Kessha has revealed that majority of the schools spend about Sh1.2 million annually each to employ at least six teachers on average through the Board of Management.
Each teacher earns an average of Sh20,000 monthly salary.
“If you now do a pro-rata basis for the entire secondary schools, that amounts to billions. This, as you are aware, is not a key function of schools,” Kahi said.
“The funds that go into hiring teachers hinder the provision of other teaching and learning programmes and facilities that are needed for our schools,” he said.
The Kessha chair also noted there have been challenges with use of the National Education Integration System (NEMIS) where students are registered online with the Education ministry using it to fund the schools.
“As we speak, the majority of the schools have not been funded because a number of students are not in the system,” Kahi noted.
The teachers will also be looking at how secondary schools are prepared for the CBC, which he said they are in full support of.
“We are aware in the next three years, the pupils will be getting into the junior secondary and, therefore, it is important that as the secondary sector we are able to pronounce ourselves on what our expectations are and how we would wish that sector to be handled,” said Kahi.
He spoke during a press conference at the KSRA ahead of the week-long 44th annual Kessha conference on Monday at the same venue.
This year’s conference has been moved to KSRA from the traditional venue of Wild Waters Complex because of the increase in the number of secondary school heads.
The new curriculum, which is being implemented to replace the 8-4-4 system, has been the subject of a bitter row between the teachers union, Knut, the teachers’ employer TSC and Education CS George Magoha.
Knut secretary general Wilson Sossion insists the country is not ready for the curriculum at the moment and that Magoha is bulldozing it.
But the CS maintains the rollout is already on and will not stop, with the government having already distributed 12 million books for the new curriculum to schools across the country.
So far, the CBC has been rolled out for nursery schools and Grade 1 to 3 while the Grade 4 programme has been set for 2020.
To support the CBC's implementation, the Teachers Service Commission is training 1,365 more officers across the country.
On Sunday, Kahi said Kessha is represented in the national steering committee of the CBC.
He said the discussion must now move from the CBC itself because it is already designed and ready for implementation.
“We have to start talking about the competency-based education processes that will ensure that this curriculum is effectively implemented,” Kahi said.
He said the discussion should be on where the junior secondary will be anchored, now that pupils will join that level in the next three years.
“Are we anchoring it in the existing primary schools or is it going to be anchored in the secondary schools?” posed Kahi.
He said to make informed decisions, it is important to look at the curriculum designs for the junior secondary so as to know whether there are gaps, how to bridge the gaps if any, whether there are enough facilities at primary or secondary school level where the junior secondary will be anchored.
“So, as Kessha and by extension principals, we have said we are supporting the new curriculum and there is no turning back,” said Kahi.