The Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) recently claimed that the teacher promotion interviews tied to student performance as opposed to tutor ability were discriminatory and favour big schools.
Akelo Misori, the Kuppet secretary-general, said the talent search should be based on a teacher’s academic qualification and competence, not a centre’s mean grade since the bulk of top KCPE pupils join national and extra-county schools. This hurts the chances of its members in smaller schools, the unionist said.
What determines a teacher’s competence in being promoted to a higher rank, job group, or seniority like becoming a school head?
Many employers struggle with worker promotion, and the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) — the teachers’ employer — is no exception.
Secondary school heads appointments in Kenya have the potential to develop and transform schools. It should, therefore, be that the teachers who are promoted be people of exceptional ability for them to meet the expectations of the society guided by the Ministry of Education goals.
While some promotions make sense, there are a few that mesmerise since they show a huge gap between education goals, policies, and the activities they undertake to educate.
Many times, there is an imbalance in the discharge of the duties of the heads of schools. Their attention is eerily directed to school funds while there is little to show for activities that matter like producing graduates who will save the nation or the world. A big percentage of these heads delegate duties to deputies, the unsung heroes. On a scale of 1-10, a number of them would score less than five.
An objective auditor would question the criteria being used to promote teachers to positions of responsibility. A reliable promotion criterion should bear more than just the title and the financial advantages that come with it. This is something that the TSC should pay more attention to.
Leading a school is directly related to a nation’s human resource that determines how it influences the society. Whenever a school’s overall educational performance falls below a certain standard, it is upon the educators to change tack in salvaging the situation.
Nonetheless, positions of responsibility in school should be based on merit with a chart spelling out who meets the requirements. It should not be obvious that a deputy principal’s next desk is headship.
If there is an urgent need to appoint a teacher to a higher position, they should be trained in management and administration to ensure efficiency and effectiveness.
Though the government has been relying on the school deputies pool as a training ground for overall school leadership, it is open to abuse by the principals, Board of Management, and school communities.
For example, a school principal who does not see eye to eye with the deputy is likely to frustrate the rise of the latter.
Boards of Management together with the local community have had undue say in who is promoted to lead ‘our school’. Clan politics has taken a deep root in determining who becomes the head. While it is understandable that the local people participate, they should never be allowed to sink so low to the point of demanding that “our own,” becomes the yardstick
For a school to benefit the local people and the entire world, there is a need to divorce positions of responsibility from financial influence or bribery and twisted connections or networks that plant square pegs in round holes.
When the least qualified rise, usually there is a big gap between policy pronouncements and enforcement, revealing how personal interest stunts national goals.
School heads whose performance is questionable or those who come swashbuckling with nothing more than ego, keep digging Kenya’s hole of rot without realising that the country is already smarting from lack of jobs, political woes and corporate ills that require the birth of beautiful ones.
Who can deliver the “beautiful” babies with the ability to rescue a sinking society is a school that is ramrod straight, not a semblance whose head is keener on diverting school funds to personal use.
It is sad that head-teachers claim that schools are their NGOs in terms of huge allowances and personal project funds like the rest whose roles in government or otherwise give them unsightly perks in a country choking under the weight of debt.
It is absurd that sometimes teachers who are promoted to head senior schools suffer mental fatigue and exhaustion, turning good students, teachers, parents, and material resources into waste.
In the short term, in-service training may become a necessity to salvage the situation. Otherwise, heading a school ought to be taken more seriously with the bigger goal of ridding the country of endless woes like the search for jobs.
The TSC ought to develop a bank of potential school heads through training, seminars and other exposures such that when the time comes, they become the perfect fit. It is such people who should be encouraged to apply for headship.
Those who show interest can be screened before being allowed into the School Leadership Training Centres. Whoever walks into these centres should be expected to be fully grown, mature, and hopefully able to lead an academic institution.
Countries that register success in education sector invest in its management. And the best investment is in human resource. Not groping and teetering on the brink of unethical behaviour while expecting stellar performance.
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