Primary school heads make strong demands of the TSC.

Primary school heads are urging the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to promote administrators overseeing comprehensive schools across the country.

The heads of these schools argue that the management of junior secondary schools has introduced significant new responsibilities that warrant promotion. Following the implementation of the Competency-Based Curriculum, primary school headteachers have taken on the management of junior secondary schools (JSS), pre-primary, and primary schools.

They highlighted that comprehensive schools, which operate under a single board with one headteacher, have brought substantial responsibilities. “Headteachers are currently stagnating at Job Group D1 due to the absence of a policy facilitating career progression. How can these educators feel valued if there’s no opportunity to advance from D1 to D2?” asked Johnson Nzioka, the national chairperson of the Kenya Primary Schools Heads Association.

Nzioka made these remarks during the annual general conference of the Kenya Primary Schools Heads Association (Kepsha) in Mombasa, where primary school heads convened to discuss pressing issues affecting the education sector. The Head of the Public Service, Felix Koskei, and Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba, along with TSC CEO Nancy Macharia, are expected to attend the conference.

Over 23,000 primary school heads are participating in the Mombasa conference to address critical matters, including structural changes in education. These headteachers also manage the funds allocated for Free Primary Education and Free Junior School Education nationwide. As secretaries to the management boards of comprehensive schools, they face increased responsibilities with the anticipated arrival of Grade 9 students next year.

The government had initially planned for Grade 9 to be accommodated in secondary schools but has since decided to house them in primary schools. With this shift, the government is under pressure to construct sufficient classrooms in public primary schools ahead of the students’ return in January 2025. Last week, President William Ruto announced that the government aims to complete the construction of over 11,000 classrooms before the start of the school year, collaborating with the National Government Constituency Development Funds to support the initiative.