Headteachers Edge Closer to Becoming Principals as Comprehensive Schools Gain Legal Footing
Parliament’s education committee has opened a new phase of engagement on seven education Bills, and one of them could change who leads Kenya’s primary schools.
For years, primary school headteachers have argued that they are principals in all but name. Many have run junior school sections since Grade 7 learners were placed in primary school compounds.
With the legislative process moving and the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) preparing a new Career Progression Guidelines (CPG), that argument is closer to becoming policy than at any point before.
Phase One begins
The National Assembly Departmental Committee on Education this week began Phase One of stakeholder engagement on seven Education Sector Bills.
The step follows public participation forums in all 47 counties. The county exercise started on 14 September 2026 and closed in Bomet County on Friday, 2 October 2026.
The two phases draw on different voices. The county forums gathered the views of teachers, parents, learners and school heads.
Phase One brings in institutional voices: umbrella bodies representing Government agencies and non-governmental organisations, the TSC and the Ministry of Education.
The Committee wants further views, recommendations and expert input on the proposed laws. It will then consolidate everything it has heard and prepare a final report to guide the legislative process.
The seven Bills are:
- Tertiary Education, Placement and Funding Bill
- Pre-Service Education and In-Service Training Bill, 2026
- Basic Education (Amendment) Bill, 2026
- Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (Amendment) Bill, 2026
- Kenya National Educational Assessments Council Bill, 2026
- Kenya National Qualifications Framework (Amendment) Bill, 2026
- Teachers Service Commission (Amendment) Bill (National Assembly Bill No. 64 of 2026)
For primary school heads, the most consequential are the Basic Education (Amendment) Bill and the TSC (Amendment) Bill. Both touch on how schools are organised and who runs them.
The comprehensive school gets formal recognition
One of the most significant features of the Basic Education Bill, 2026 is that it recognises comprehensive schools as part of Kenya’s basic education system. The change follows from the Competency Based Curriculum (CBC).
Under the former 8-4-4 system, primary and secondary schools were generally distinct institutions. Primary schools served the lower levels, and secondary schools began after Class Eight.
The CBC introduced junior school for Grades 7, 8 and 9, creating a new stage between primary and senior school.
The government has increasingly placed junior school learners within existing primary school environments, so many primary schools now host both primary and junior sections.
The Bill gives that arrangement a legal footing. A comprehensive school brings different levels of basic education, particularly primary and junior school, under a common institutional framework.
What began as an administrative response to the CBC rollout would become a legally recognised type of institution.
One institution, one Board of Management
Governance is a major part of the change. Under the proposal, primary and junior sections sharing an institution will have a single Board of Management (BOM).
The Board would provide overall governance and oversight, including administration, development, infrastructure and the use of resources.
For schools that already run both sections in one compound, this could remove a good deal of duplication.
It also raises a practical question: if one Board oversees one institution, who leads that institution day to day?
The Munavu recommendation
The idea did not originate in the Bill. Merging primary and junior school into a comprehensive school was a recommendation of the Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms (PWPER), which was headed by the late Prof. Raphael Munavu.
The working party also proposed how a comprehensive school should be led. It recommended one principal and two deputies, one deputy for the primary section and another for the junior section.
Under that model, the head of a combined school is a principal, not a headteacher, and the leadership team mirrors the school’s two levels.
The Bill is the vehicle for the structural recommendation. The question of titles and grades sits with the TSC and the new CPG.
The government’s timeline
The proposed legislation comes after earlier government plans to reorganise schools around this model. Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba has already stated that primary and junior schools would be merged into one institution from the next financial year. He also said the two institutions would be merged under one BOM and one fund from July 2027.
That date matters. July 2027 is also when, according to the TSC’s timeline, the new CPG is to be integrated with the 2025-2029 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), when teachers are due a salary increment.
The merger of institutions, boards and funds and the new teacher grading structure are therefore set to take effect together.
How this lines up with the TSC’s new CPG
The TSC plans to scrap the 2018 CPG and replace it with a new one. The Commission’s 9 June 2026 stakeholder presentation, as reported, set out the structure, and it reads like the staffing side of the comprehensive school model.
It proposes cutting the number of career levels across the service from 56 to 43, and in primary school (regular) from 8 to 6.
It also separates administrative positions from professional classroom tasks. For primary school leadership, the proposal introduces a Principal ladder that mirrors the one in secondary:
- Senior Headteacher (D1) becomes Teacher 4, Principal I.
- Headteacher and Deputy Headteacher 1 (both C5) become Teacher 5, Principal II.
- Deputy Headteacher 2 (C4) becomes Teacher 6, Deputy Principal (Primary).
If the final CPG keeps this mapping, the title of principal will no longer belong to secondary schools alone.
A primary headteacher would become a principal in title and in the grading structure. These details come from the proposal as presented.
The design also fits the Munavu model. A comprehensive school led by a principal with a deputy for each section needs a grading structure that supports principals and deputy principals in primary. The proposed CPG supplies one.
Where the CPG stands now
Teachers are waiting for the final CPG details. The Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) has been conducting a job evaluation, and the results will determine how the new grades are priced.
Speaking on World Teachers’ Day on 5 October, President William Ruto said SRC Chairman Sammy Chepkwony had briefed him that the revised CPG was undergoing job evaluation and would be out in two weeks. Teachers will be watching for that publication.
The distinction between a title and a grade is important. The proposal shows what primary school leaders would be called and where they would sit in the structure.
Whether pay follows depends on job evaluation. After that, the TSC’s own steps are a clinic on the results, communication of the financial implications and publication to teachers.
Why headteachers say they have earned it
The push for this change did not start with the Bill. The primary heads’ association, KEPSHA, which has since been rebranded KECSHA, has long lobbied for its members to be confirmed at job group D1 and designated principals.
Its argument rests on what has happened in practice. Since junior school began, primary headteachers have been acting as principals of junior schools.
They have supervised Grade 7, 8 and 9 sections, managed teachers across two levels, and handled the administrative and resource demands of a larger institution.
In many cases that has been done under the old titles and the old grades, which were designed for a primary-only school.
For these heads, the comprehensive school model and the new CPG are a chance to align the title and the grade with the job they already do.
The proposed mapping is also a reminder of how much depends on the final document. Under the proposal, a Senior Headteacher at D1 lands at Principal I, while Headteachers and Deputy Headteachers 1 at C5 land at Principal II.
KECSHA’s call for confirmation at D1 will therefore be tested against the grades the final CPG assigns. The question for many heads will be whether the current distinction between headteacher grades survives or is flattened.
The merger question
The new CPG also brings a risk for some. Where two grades are collapsed into one, the person on the higher grade can end up sharing a level with former juniors.
In the proposed structure, the Headteacher and Deputy Headteacher 1 are placed at the same level. Whether that is a gain or a loss depends on how job evaluation prices the merged grade.
Competition is another factor. Under the proposal, the rungs above the entry and early grades are competitive, meaning promotion is based on merit and not simply on years served.
Fewer levels mean fewer posts at the top. A principal’s post in a larger comprehensive school may be a more demanding job to win, not an automatic one.
Heads who have acted as principals will have a strong case on experience, but the final CPG will decide how that experience is weighed.
What remains uncertain
Several things are still open, and the article should not suggest otherwise.
First, the Bills are still in the engagement stage. The Committee will consolidate views and prepare its final report, and nothing in the process so far guarantees the Bills pass as drafted. The TSC (Amendment) Bill and the Basic Education (Amendment) Bill could change.
Second, the CPG is not final. The slides presented in June are a proposal, and the job evaluation results have not yet been published.
Third, the transition rules are unknown. It is not yet clear how existing headteachers will move into principal posts, whether by automatic placement or by competition, and how heads of schools that remain primary-only will be treated.
Fourth, the staffing arrangements inside comprehensive schools will need detail. Questions such as how many deputies a school gets and how the junior school deputy is chosen will be settled in regulations and TSC policy.
What to watch
In the coming weeks, three developments will show how far the headteachers’ case has travelled:
- The Committee’s Phase One hearings. The TSC and the Ministry of Education will appear before the Committee, and what they say about school leadership in comprehensive schools will be telling.
- The publication of the final CPG. The grades and titles for primary school leadership will confirm or change the proposed mapping.
- The job evaluation results and salary scales. These will show whether Principal I and Principal II come with pay that reflects the new titles.
The bottom line
Taken together, the comprehensive school model, the single BOM and the proposed CPG point in one direction. The Basic Education Bill would give the combined school a legal identity.
The Munavu working party proposed that such a school have one principal. The Cabinet Secretary has set July 2027 for the merger of institutions, boards and funds. The TSC’s proposed CPG creates a Principal ladder in primary.
For primary headteachers, who have spent years acting as principals of junior schools, this is the clearest sign yet that the title they have sought is within reach.
They are inching closer, but they are not there yet. The final CPG, the job evaluation and the Bills’ passage will decide whether the principal’s title in primary school becomes a settled reality or a promise that falls short.