Hidden agendas behind vicious fight surrounding Kaimenyi’s school rules

What you need to know:

  • The CS, Prof Jacob Kaimenyi, has explained that headteachers would be required to assume the role of accounting officers in their institutions to improve financial accountability in the school system. The principals would, therefore, act as the agents of the CS.
  • So, if the Cabinet secretary is so ably represented in every school activity, why does he need to establish a new arrangement? Is he saying that he has lost faith in the system that has been in place for years?
  • The TSC has become a byword for corruption and it is a poorly kept secret within education circles that headteachers implicated in impropriety simply buy their freedom by bribing senior TSC officials. This is why the Cabinet secretary wants to bypass the TSC, but is the ministry itself corruption-free?

Once again, teachers unions are threatening to disrupt the reopening of schools this week, as they invariably do whenever they wish to push an agenda or oppose a development that they suspect might threaten the status quo.

The Kenya National Union of Teachers and the Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers are up in arms against the enforcement of the Basic Education Regulations Act, 2014. In particular, they are opposed to a requirement in the Act that puts headteachers directly under the Education Cabinet secretary. 

The CS, Prof Jacob Kaimenyi, has explained that headteachers would be required to assume the role of accounting officers in their institutions to improve financial accountability in the school system. The principals would, therefore, act as the agents of the CS.

The unions, who this time round have the improbable and most unusual support of the Teachers Service Commission (TSC), argue that the rules take away the constitutional mandate of the TSC to hire, promote, and dismiss all teachers. They also argue that they were not consulted before the rules were gazetted. It is easy to see why such simple rules should ignite a war that would threaten to disrupt the school calendar.

At a glance, it appears unnecessary to place headteachers under the ministry just because the Cabinet Secretary is keen to introduce “more financial accountability” in schools, which already have a system designed to ensure that headteachers are accountable for every cent they use.

The principal secretary in the ministry, being the accounting officer, provides support through the provision of financial and auditing services. Auditors working under the PS are mandated to inspect school accounts regularly. In case of any malpractice, the PS is expected to write to the TSC, reporting any dereliction of duty with regard to public funds.

The TSC is then expected to act on the reports promptly and decisively, which explains the regular interdiction and demotion of headteachers every year.

LOST FAITH IN THE SYSTEM

The Cabinet secretary is suitably represented in schools by the boards of management, which he appoints to be his eyes and ears. He delegates to them the authority to approve budgets and monitor expenditure. The boards are also empowered to interdict teachers.

So, if the Cabinet secretary is so ably represented in every school activity, why does he need to establish a new arrangement? Is he saying that he has lost faith in the system that has been in place for years? Have headteachers become so deceitful that they need his direct supervision to keep them in check?

Since the Cabinet secretary has not published any evidence that schools have been losing money through fraud and that the established quality control system has been unable to detect and stop this, it can only be assumed that he is not happy with the way the TSC has been carrying out its mandate.

The ministry is keen on getting more direct control of the education system, the way it used to be some decades ago when the TSC was a mere department in the ministry.

The new rules simply mean that the principal secretary does not have to write to the TSC to report malpractices by the headteachers but can discipline them himself. This will remove unnecessary bureaucracy by making punishment prompt.

The TSC has become a byword for corruption and it is a poorly kept secret within education circles that headteachers implicated in impropriety simply buy their freedom by bribing senior TSC officials. This is why the Cabinet secretary wants to bypass the TSC, but is the ministry itself corruption-free?

Obviously, the TSC is averse to losing some of its powers to the ministry and that is why it has joined forces with the unions to oppose the new rules. And the unions obviously fear that if the headteachers are separated from the main teaching fraternity, the government may entice them away by creating a separate remuneration system to put them at par with other civil servants of the same grade and stop them from being unionisable. 

If that happens, then the ministry will have eaten the unions’ lunch at a time when they are becoming increasingly irrelevant, especially with the coming into force of the Salaries and Remuneration Commission.

Mr Waihenya is the chief sub-editor of the Daily Nation. [email protected]