Headteachers lay down tough demands over pay, promotion

Motivational speaker, Wambugu Wa Kamau takes head teachers through CBC career pathways during Kepsha annual conference at Sheikh Zayed hall in Mombasa, on November 6, 2024. [Omondi Onyango, Standard]

Over 15,000 primary school head teachers have vowed to push for a pay rise and promotion to principal positions to reflect their expanded responsibilities.

The 25th Kenya Primary School Heads Association (Kepsha) meeting concluded on Thursday evening with a call for an increase in capitation funding, as recommended by the Presidential Working Party on Education.

Additionally, teachers have called for changes to the grading system, allowing headteachers to progress from job group D1 to D2 or D3. Currently, primary school head teachers are limited to advancing only up to job grade D1.

Job groups D2 are principals, D3 and D4 are senior principals, and D5 are chief principals. "We want the government to recognize us as principals and facilitate career progression for primary school heads to grade D5," they resolved.

On Wednesday, the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) Chief Executive Nancy Macharia told the head teachers that such policy change will require parliamentary approval.

She advised the Kenya Primary School Association Kepsha to channel the request to the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) for discussion during the next Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).

In a resolution read by Kepsha national chairman, Johnson Nzioka, the meeting also demanded the promotion of teachers and head teachers in primary schools who have completed their studies in higher learning institutions.

Recruitment of teachers

They further called on the government to use a competency-based assessment portal within Nemis/Kemis rather than a birth certificate for school resource allocation.

"There are many schools with children who lack birth certificates, making it difficult to account for them," said the teachers.

They also urged the government to expedite the recruitment of teachers for junior secondary schools, as well as qualified accountants or bursars to assist in managing the free education capitation funds.

Kepsha further called for the expansion of the school meals programme to include arid and semi-arid regions as well as informal settlements.

The teachers commended the government for allocating a billion shillings for the retooling of Competence Based Curriculum (CBC) teachers, promoting teachers for the 2024 /2025 cycle, and streaming lessons to schools in hard-to-reach areas.

However, they asked the government to fast-track proposed review of the career progression guidelines.

Meanwhile, Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Migos has said that detectives are trailing suspects using online sites to engage in national examination malpractices and irregularities.

Speaking in Kilifi, the CS said that the government had taken steps to monitor the online sites suspected of disseminating information to compromise the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Examination.

He said the exams were being administered under a multi-agency approach involving ministries of Education, Interior, Information and Communication.