HEADS MEET

The annual Kenya Secondary School Heads Association (KESSHA) conference took off in Mombasa Tuesday amidst a simmering row over the hiring of intern teachers.

The government has defended the hiring of the teachers on contractual basis saying it would address the acute shortage of teachers in the country.

However the head teachers opposed the move saying it would lead to unfair remuneration.

The five day secondary school head teachers conference in Mombasa seeks to discuss the suitability of the secondary school curriculum as well as funding problems faced by many public schools countrywide.

The annual meeting which is in its 35th year also looks to address the shortage of teachers in schools which now stands at 60,000, severely affecting learning in public schools.

Deputy Prime Minister Musalia Mudavadi and education minister Sam Ongeri who addressed the teachers sought to reassure them of the government's commitment to the advancement of education and welfare of teachers.

Ongeri assured the school heads that the shortage of teachers would be adequately addressed, saying the government was moving to sign up more teachers through schools boards, which would receive funding to acquire teachers on a contractual basis.

Free tuition

The teachers decried the irregular disbursement of funds for the secondary school free tuition programme and called for a major overhaul of the systems used to administer the crucial fund in running public schools.

KESSHA national chairman Cloephas Tirop said that to date secondary school managers were owed a staggering Ksh 9 billion by the ministry of education in form of the free tuition money which he said was a major impediment to the smooth running of post primary learning institutions.

Tirop said the delay in disbursement of the funds said secondary schools have received only 40 per cent of their allocations from the ministry which was not enough to run the institutions.

The teachers also want the Constituency Bursary Funds administered through the CDF kitty be reverted back to schools for smooth administration.

And to address the shortage of teachers which was described as a national disaster, the head teachers want the commitment to hire 28,000 teachers as outlined in the Vision 2030 blueprint expedited while the legal battles between the ministry of education and teachers unions over the hiring of intern teachers should be withdrawn from the courts.

The also want the funds which were factored in the budget to hire intern teachers channeled to the School Boards of Governors and District Education Boards to hire part time teachers.

Proposed constitution

The debate on the proposed new constitution made its appearance at the meeting with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Local Government Musalia Mudavadi saying the new document was a radical departure from the current constitution which did not underpin education as a constitutional provision.

He urged the teachers to support the proposed document since the government would be bound by the supreme law to fulfil its policies and obligations to give Kenyans their constitutional rights including basic education for all.

''The government of the day will find it extremely difficult to scale down funding to the Ministry of Education as the Finance minister will not sit and allocate funding to government ministries at his whim,'' he said.

The law according to Mudavadi also recognised and entrenched the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) as a constitutional body.

''Since this new document recognises TSC, your employer as an important cog in the wheel of the education sector, there is need for educationists to back it,'' said Mudavadi.