Government's missteps putting head teachers in a tight corner

On June 26, 2023, The Standard, ran a frontpage headline; 'Schools defy ministry'. The detailed report on the state of public schools in Kenya pits head teachers against the employer, Teachers Service Commission (TSC) and the regulator, the Ministry of Education.

Head teachers are caught between implementing policy directives on running schools within the provided funding guidelines and using creativity to keep learners in school due to either delayed disbursement of funds or the insufficiency of the funds when they are disbursed.

A teacher cannot wake up and close a school because the funds disbursement from the ministry have delayed. Similarly, a head teacher cannot close a school during the term because available funds are insufficient. In both cases, there are processes to be followed. Such situations make head teachers look incompetent when in fact the problems lie up in the government hierarchy where funding priorities are decided.

I will not pretend to have a grasp of the policy direction the government is taking regarding the CBC implementation and the budgeting lines associated with it. Further, I do not know what measurement metrics the government uses to fix schools fees and the add-on costs.

What is evident is that something is not working between the duty bearers and the teachers administering schools. The supplied government fees structure seems to work in very few schools, if at all. A majority of schools defy government policy directives because there is a clear mismatch between the needs in schools and the political interests in government.

Between the teachers, TSC and the ministry of education, I empathise with the teachers. Teachers have students whom they have to convincingly address on strains limiting service delivery in the schools. Left without answers, students resort to riots and burning of schools.

Ironically, in spite of their problems, government schools put up a relatively strong performance in national exams. However, education is not just about passing exams. What we don't analyse is how public schools contribute to failure of students, especially in Harambee schools, to qualify to join higher education learning institutions but also in forming student character.

I believe the generation of political leaders who truly care about public schools is behind us. I refuse to fall for false certainty. Education has become highly politicised. Funding of schools follows political interests. Some priorities on the government agenda would stand no value if they were to be weighed against holistic education of every child.

Learning under Mzee Jomo Kenyatta and the first 10 years of Daniel Moi regimes, we received exercises books, text books, chalks and other learning and teaching materials from government. The quality of teaching was intense and comparatively less exam-drill driven. University students used to get upkeep funding. By and large, learning was student-centered because the government cared about holistic education.

Arguably, the teaching and learning environment of the time was different. But, I again refuse to accept false certainty that our public schools are financially struggling because we are in a new era. To the contrary, technology advancement has potential to make education cheaper and accessible to every child. We should be able to pay our teachers a just wage and meet overhead costs. Our education technology uptake is very low. Spewing false certainty to teachers without sufficient funding is evil.

The Education ministry's funding policy wish-list is impractical because it is not generated with the best interest of a child at heart. I understand there are corrupt head teachers prompting the ministry to stick to its fees structure. The rogue head teachers might be pushing themselves to wealth as their counterparts in politics do. Of course it is the parents who have to bear that add-on cost. The problem is that being small fish, they will be fried pretty fast.

Government must have the interest of the child at heart to meaningfully fund public schools. If not, it should run the number of schools it can fully fund and let parents take children to private schools.

Dr Mokua is Executive Director, Loyola Centre for Media and Communication