Just as teachers would normally vehemently complain about certain challenges that frustrate their work at school, school administrators have also cited what frustrates effective administration of institutions that fall under their control.
Administrators who were interviewed on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of their plight decried low funding and wondered why since inception of free and compulsory education in 2003, the capitation has been a paltry KSh1,420, KSh15,042 and KSh22,244 for primary, junior school, and secondary education, respectively. Yet, the cost of living has increased tremendously.
They still argued from an informed perspective that 2003 inflation was 2.5 percent, while in the first quarter of 2024, it was 8.1 per cent.
The dollar’s exchange rate was 84 then, compared to the current 129. This means that the KSh’s depreciation has risen by over 66 percent.
READ ALSO: KUPPET decries capitation funds, warns of crisis in schools
According to the administrators, if education standards are to be maintained, school capitation should be increased pro rata as follows: Ksh. 2500, 24,900, and 36,925 for primary, Junior, and secondary, respectively.
Some have gone ahead to argue that the Ministry of Education (MoE) should leave the procurement role of instructional materials to headteachers and teachers so that quality and relevant materials can be sourced by schools themselves. They argue that some of the books delivered are very low quality compared to what the teachers would wish to have.
“Why should the MoE source books that they don’t use? This has to be an exceptional reserve of institutions,” they posed.
They stated that there are staff members who are bosses’ wives or relatives of very eminent persons. Suppose disciplinary action has to be taken against such teachers. In that case, they will receive phone calls encouraging them to backtrack on the requisite professional decisions. “What would you do if you were an administrator?” they asked.
Worse still, there are instances when very incompetent management boards are elected to office. This amounts to poor decision-making and a lack of effective resource mobilization strategies. It goes a long way toward undermining the well-being of teachers, hindering institutions’ growth, and compromising overall performance and school culture
The administrators openly decried teachers’ laziness, creating learning gaps that can negatively impact their future careers.
When we get good results, we are held in honour, but when we attain poor results, it becomes frustrating. Here, parents have been known to gang up against administrators and the Board of Management. They assume that the administrators and the board were ineffective.
We have parents who aren’t supportive of the deliberations reached in parent meetings, especially programmes that demand some finances. Parents would completely dishonour such payments, thereby frustrating the entire programme.
According to the administrators, some of the officers demand a little too much from schools, thereby frustrating and paralyzing other very important school programmes. Most administrators would not say this.
There are instances when some teachers come to school and just make sit-ins. When we embark on auditing learners’ work, we realize that learning has been minimal. As we even take disciplinary action, we note that the damage has already been done.
By Hillary Muhalya
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