Head-teachers push for longer school term

Primary school headteachers are pushing for the first term to be extended to make up for time lost during the General Election.

The Kenya Primary Schools Heads Association (Kepsha) has also asked the Ministry of Education to authorise the extension of learning hours per day.

Public primary schools were closed for two weeks late January and early this month because they were being used as polling centres for party nominations and for the March 4 elections.

“We discussed modalities of making up for the time lost during political party nominations and the General Election and we agreed there was a need to extend the term,” said Kepsha chairman Joseph Karuga.

The recommendation was made on Monday at a meeting of the association at the Kenya Education Management Institute in Nairobi.

Mr Karuga, who is the headteacher of Nairobi Primary School, said registration for the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education examination was in progress.

“The Kenya National Examinations Council will go ahead with the final exam despite the interruptions and we have decided to compensate the learners for the time lost,” Mr Karuga said.

He, however, said the ministry and teachers’ unions would have to be consulted.

“As headteachers, we are only taking a proactive approach on the matter. We are looking at how much we can do without burdening the children,” he said.

At the same time, the teachers appealed for peace to ensure meaningful teaching and learning.

“It is still a very delicate period for the country and we need to stress the peace messages,” Mr Karuga said.

In a related development, the Ministry of Education has embarked on revising the free primary and free day secondary education programmes to fulfil the requirements of the new Constitution.

Education permanent secretary George Godia said the Constitution made education free and compulsory and the ministry was studying both the primary and secondary education programmes to ensure that all children who are supposed to be in school are reached.

“The transition from primary to secondary stands at 77 per cent but we hope with interventions we shall attain 100 per cent by next year,” he said.

The PS said the ministry had so far disbursed Sh10 billion for the free day secondary education; Sh5 billion for free primary education and an additional Sh1.4 billion for constituency bursary funds.

Prof Godia, who was speaking at Goibei Girls High School after he commissioned an ICT laboratory, said the ministry would come up with an Act to interpret Article 43 and 53 of the Constitution.

Article 43 (f) says every person has a right to education while Article 53 (b) says every child has a right to free and compulsory basic education.

“We want to know what it takes to keep a child in school from nursery to secondary so that we can implement these programmes effectively,” said the PS.

Meanwhile, Nyanza Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) officials have criticised the union’s chairman, Mr Wilson Sossion, for saying that Knut will support President-elect Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy, Mr William Ruto.

The officials said the statement went against the union’s constitution.

Kisumu East and Rarieda constituencies, Migori and Homa Bay counties Knut representatives said Mr Sossion’s speech on behalf of teachers was out of line because he was not the Knut spokesperson.

“Knut is a trade union which should not participate in political matters,” said Mr Joshua Ogallo, the union’s Kisumu East branch executive secretary.

According to media reports, Mr Sossion had said that although he respected Cord leader Raila Odinga, it was wrong for the country to be in a perpetual election mood.

He spoke at Chemosot, Bureti constituency during a funeral service.

Responding to the statement, the union officials said every Kenyan had a constitutional right to seek justice.

Mr Odinga has filed an election petition challenged the decision by the electoral commission to declare Mr Kenyatta the winner of the March 4 presidential election.

According to the commission, Mr Kenyatta of the Jubilee Alliance got 6.1 million votes against Mr Odinga’s 5.3 million.

The petition filed on Saturday will be heard at the Supreme Court.

“Let all Kenyans be patient as we wait for the outcome of the case in the Supreme Court,” Mr Ogallo said.

Other teachers in Nyanza also dismissed Mr Sossion’s sentiments saying they did not represent the views of all teachers in the country.

Additional reporting by Lilian Achieng, Mauric Kalouch and KNA