Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) Secretary-General Wilson Sossion
(left) and TSC's Director of Human Resource Josephine Maundu address
headteachers at the Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Association conference
at Wild Waters in Mombasa on June 18, 2015. PHOTO | KEVIN ODIT | NATION
MEDIA GROUP
Headteachers on Friday went against their unions and resolved to
support job evaluations for teachers as proposed by the Salaries and
Remuneration Commission.
The secondary school heads
declared their support for the exercise, which was strongly opposed by
the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) and the Kenya Union of
Post-Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) just a day earlier.
The resolution was one of the 13 they came up with at the close of a five-day annual conference at Wild Waters in Mombasa.
“Principals
support (job evaluations) by (the) SRC with the belief that (they) will
recognise their workload and compensate them accordingly,” they said.
Knut
Secretary-General Wilson Sossion and his Kuppet counterpart Akelo
Misori had opposed the evaluations, saying they demeaned teachers and
were meant to victimise them.
CURRICULUM REVIEW
The
school heads also welcomed a broad-based curriculum review that would
incorporate technical training, life skills such as recognising
terrorists, and talent development.
Fighting the
critical teacher shortage in northeastern Kenya due to insecurity also
featured prominently in the 13 resolutions arrived at in the 40th
Secondary School Head Teachers Association’s conference, in a day that
ended with torrential rains after a four-day scorching heat.
The
7,300 school principals called on the government to urgently address
the issue in order to restore normalcy in the region’s education sector.
They agreed to initiate steps to help in preventing further attacks and radicalisation of students within schools.
The
head teachers asked the National Treasury and the Education, Science
and Technology ministries to disburse capitation funds to schools before
schools reopen as directed by Deputy President William Ruto on Tuesday.
Delays in sending the money had seriously affected their operations,
they said.
“The Teachers Service Commission should
employ teachers continuously and ensure they are fairly distributed in
schools around the country,” they said.
The teachers
also wanted the government to clarify and finalise their medical
insurance cover so that teachers can start benefiting from it by July 1.
PARENTS ASSOCIATION
They
asked the Education ministry to clarify the role of Parents
Associations against the backdrop of the already existing and elected
officials of the Parents and Teachers Associations by reviewing the
Basic Education Act 2013.
“School management bodies
should be protected from political interference that leads to
unwarranted transfers of teachers in the middle of the year thus
disrupting the smooth learning programme,” they said.
They
urged the government to implement the use of 95 per cent of the
Constituency Development Fund money to build school infrastructure as
suggested by the deputy president on Tuesday.
They also
want the government to regulate groups and consultants authorised by
the ministry to conduct training in schools to avoid causing confusion
and unnecessary costs.
“We will also use our positions
to support the campaign aimed at eradicating female genital mutilation
in the affected areas of the country,” they said.
No comments :
Post a Comment