Brian Mureithi and Victor Raballa @PeopleDailyKe
The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has now come up with a raft of measures to counter the rampant wave of arson attacks that has hit secondary schools in the last two months.
In the measures that were revealed after the commission held lengthy deliberations with officials from the Ministry of Education and secondary school heads, TSC declared it will introduce full-fledged offices of qualified counsellors in all secondary schools to attend to students’ social development and academic needs.
This came as Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Association (Kessha) announced that congestion and hardships in boarding facilities could be the main grudge prompting students to torch dormitories, rather than fear of strict rules against exam cheating.
TSC announced that a policy framework is being developed to strengthen and streamline guidance and counselling functions in schools. Further, TSC directed all principals, their deputies and teachers in-charge of all boarding aspects and other administrative staff to now reside in school compounds at all times.
Speaking after holding the deliberations at the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development yesterday, TSC secretary Nancy Macharia declared they will work with all principals and stakeholders to establish a robust communication and participatory framework to involve students, teachers and other stakeholders in the management of schools.
“Schools are required to enhance and establish participative communication structures, channels and platforms to engage students, teachers and all stakeholders in horizontal communication which incorporates feedback and decision making,” she announced.
She added that they will also put in place mechanisms to continually build and update the capacity of all teachers, and in particular principals, to equip them with necessary management skills to respond to emerging issues.
“A policy is already in place to operationalise professional development programmes that will focus on institutional management, Information Communication Technology, Guidance and Counselling and effective implementation of the curriculum,” she said.
She reiterated that the commission will continue the exercise of de-localising staff management of schools to avert conflicts arising from vested interests and bar principals from pursuing partisan business interests. Earlier, Kessha had raised concerns that the current wave of arson attacks could be due to the poor state of boarding facilities in schools across the country.
Kessha chairman John Awiti said it should not be overlooked that dormitories are the ones which have been targeted the most as opposed to other amenities. As stakeholders engage to address the recent cases which have affected more than 100 schools across the country, Awiti said the trend should be used as a guide in attempting to unravel the mystery behind the arson attacks.
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