Teachers' mass transfer likely to dominate principals meeting

The secondary school principals’ annual conference, which begins Sunday, could not have come at a more opportune time when the Teachers Service Commission is fighting to implement new policies that most headteachers are quietly opposed to.

The meetings are usually routine, run-of-the-mill gatherings that most headteachers use to take a breather from school administration. This year’s is underpinned by tension and a deep antipathy by the principals especially because of a policy to delocalise school administration through the mass transfer of teachers away from their local communities.

The policy is a hot-button issue because since it was introduced last year, it has led to the transfer of thousands of headteachers away from their home counties in what the TSC says is a campaign to improve cohesion in the country and deepen an appreciation of the country’s diverse cultures.

SORRY SITUATION

The change is, however, clearly anchored on the 2016 Collective Bargaining Agreement between the teachers’ unions and the commission and is registered at the Employment and Labour Relations Court. But teachers say it is being implemented in a rush, desultory manner that is open to abuse and likely to lead to instability in the management of the affected schools.

The idea that teachers working away from home will be more valuable from a national perspective because they will be in a position to appreciate other cultures, therefore improving social cohesion, is ridiculous and abstract, says a principal of a national school in Nairobi. A teacher on the verge of retirement being uprooted from their home to serve hundreds of kilometres away will be psychologically broken because of the pain of having to leave his family and roots to start a new life elsewhere, he says.

“Obviously such a teacher will feel hard done by, discriminated against and chastened. An employee’s motivation is a direct result of the sum of interactions between him and his employer. A teacher who feels the employer is out to make his life harder will obviously be of little use to him and the certain casualty in such a sorry situation is the quality of education.”

OPEN TO ABUSE

Another principal says the policy is also open to abuse and has been turned into an avenue of corruption involving the headteachers, education officials and senior managers at the TSC. He says headteachers are paying as much as Sh300,000 to TSC officials to buy retention at their current stations or appointments to bigger and more prestigious schools.

Mr Clement Gicharu, the secretary-general of the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) in Kiambu East, said desperate teachers are certainly using money to keep their positions. “It’s an ironical situation because TSC officials are the ones encouraging teachers to defeat the policy by demanding payments. The policy may be well-intentioned but it is open to abuse. The commission must put the learner at the heart of any drastic change. They should rethink this policy and find a more structured and reasoned way of implementing it,” he says. He says the policy is serving as a great demotivator to teachers because it is tearing families apart and creating loneliness.

TSC head of communications Kihumba Kamotho declined to comment on the policy, saying he is on leave.

HURTING QUALITY

The rush to implement the policy has spawned a wave of anxiety among teachers especially deputies eager for promotions to headship but terrified by the possibility of being posted hundreds of kilometres away from their families.

Mr Sammy Bor, the Knut executive secretary for Eldoret, says this apprehension has hurt service delivery in schools because many teachers are too preoccupied with the transfer worries to concentrate on their work.

He is of the view that TSC should have sold the policy to the teachers first, explaining the reasoning behind it and what it hopes to achieve before implementing it.

“The TSC must go slow on the policy. They must consider teachers who are on the verge of retirement and those who may be having health problems. You cannot implement such a drastic rule without paying due attention to peculiar situations that may end up hurting the quality of education,” he says.

LONG OVERDUE

However, while unionists and teachers are opposed to the policy, there are those who think it is long overdue and that it will lead to better school management.

Renowned educationist and former long-serving principal at Alliance High Christopher Khaemba welcomes the policy, saying it has the potential of enriching principals' lives by giving them exposure and opening up their minds to different cultures. He says, however, that the argument that headteachers working near the homes are distracted from their core duties by their businesses is far-fetched and generalised.

"I served in Alliance (away from home) for many years and I also served at Friends School Kamusinga just next door to where I was born. At Alliance I came to appreciate and love the culture and traditions of Central Kenya people and at Kamusinga in Vihiga, I was never preoccupied with domestic issues. In all, however, I think I became much wiser when I moved away from home," he says.

Mr Khaemba, a co-founder and director of Nova Pioneer Education Group, a pan-African independent school network offering pre-school to secondary education, says the TSC should extend the policy to teachers and students giving the example of the A-Level system that preceded the 8-4-4 that laid emphasis on national integration through student admissions and teacher posting.

DICTATORIAL TENDENCIES

"Those teachers who feel they have sound reasons to be spared the transfers should make individual appeals to the TSC and I'm sure they will be listened to. There is no point in complaining and doing nothing about it," he says, though he blames the TSC for letting some headteachers stay for too long in one station.

Dr Geoffrey Wango, a senior lecturer in counselling psychology at the University of Nairobi, agrees with Mr Khaemba. “Some headteachers have served in their stations for far too long, attaining the status of untouchable demigods. This longevity in one station has engendered dictatorial tendencies and a cavalier attitude to work and this is what the TSC is looking to tear down,” he says.

He adds that the TSC is implementing a prudent policy but doing it too late and in an haphazard way. For him, the issue is not about appreciation of cultural diversity and boosting social cohesion. It is about restoring discipline and professionalism in the management of schools.

“Headteachers opposed to transfers are simply seeking to protect their turf. The reason so many schools have been rocked by indiscipline as exemplified by the recent spate of school fires, rape incidents, etc, is simply because school management has fallen apart,” he says.

ROBUST DEBATE

He calls on the TSC to be careful not to destabilise the school system through mass transfers, suggesting that the changes be phased.

“The TSC must put the learner first. Any change that ends up hurting the quality of education is absurd. The commission should go ahead and break down these comfort zones but it should do it judiciously,” he says.

Dr Wango says former Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i faced a storm of resistance when he confronted and dismantled cartels abetting cheating in national examinations but he stood firm and the vice has been stamped out.

The TSC must use this week’s conference to encourage a healthy and robust debate of the delocalisation system, the new appraisal system for teachers and the deteriorating discipline standards in schools.