Primary school head teachers who are currently manning Junior School (JS) have urged the government to deploy qualified accountants to their jurisdictions for effective management of resources.
In their official communique which contained the resolutions and recommendations adopted by the delegates who attended this year’s Annual National Conference in Mombasa last week, the head teachers noted that the accountants or bursars will help in the effective management of the capitation fund sent by the Ministry of Education.
Currently, a good number of primary schools do not have bursars despite receiving close to Ksh1,400 per primary school learner and Ksh15,000 for JS learner.
Their call comes after the Head of Public Service and Chief of Staff Felix Koskei, who graced the official opening of the conference on November 5, 2024, urged the heads to ensure they manage properly the public resources under them and which are sent by the government, encouraging them to be familiar with the provision of Public Finance Management Act and Public Procurement and Disposal Act to ensure zero audit queries.
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At the same time the Ministry of Education had hinted the government will start auditing the schools from the next Financial Year.
The head teachers have further requested the MoE and the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to recognize them as principals, facilitate their Career Progression beyond Grade D1 to D5, and further increase their salaries considering that their responsibilities have currently increased.
Other requests they made to TSC and MoE include promoting those teachers who have furthered their studies, use Competence Based Assessment portal within NEMIS which is being transitioned to KEMIS rather than birth certificates for school resource allocation, and increase capitation funds for free education as captured in the 2023 recommendations of the Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms (PWPER).
They also want the government to immediately disburse free capitation funds as it has been the case recently, expedite recruitment of Junior School teachers to bridge the current shortage, ensure equitable distribution of Grade 9 classrooms under construction in all primary schools countrywide under the oversight of MoE, expand school meals programmes to include urban informal settlements, and reinstate Teacher of the Year Award (TOYA) and Headteacher of the Year Award (HOYA), among other award schemes which used to be in place before.
By Roy Hezron
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