Primary school headteachers could earn a special allowance next year, a close source to the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has revealed.
According to the source the school heads will have an additional managerial task that calls for an additional task and the Commission is planning to entice the heads with promotions and better pay for the Grade 7 assignment.
The primary school heads will manage both their primary schools and the junior secondary school section which will be domiciled inside their current schools.
TSC said, Grade 7 learners who will remain in primary schools in January, will still be under their school headteacher.
TSC Chairperson Jamleck Muturi and TSC head of legal affairs Cavin Anyuor while appearing before the Education Committee in Parliament said junior secondary school will still be under primary school management.
Kitutu Masaba MP Clive Gisairo had inquired how teachers will run the two categories separately.
“Who will be the administrator, will they have different management in the same school or how will that be done?” he said.
Anyuor responded saying Grade 7 will still be managed under primary schools.
“As it stands now the administrator will still remain the headteacher of that primary until junior secondary takes off,” he said.
When the headteachers met in Mombasa for their 18th Kenya Primary School Heads Association (Kepsha) they called for increased capitation for schools.
Johnson Nzioka, the chair of Kepsha said the cost of running a primary school with 400 pupils comes to about Sh3 million per year.
He told the 18th Kepsha annual conference at the Sheikh Zayed Children Welfare Centre in Mombasa, that their demands are geared towards making the learning environment better for the children, including those with special needs.
“The last review on capitation was done in 2010 when it was capped at Sh1,400 per child. This figure falls far below the requirements to effectively run a primary school. In our proposal, we have taken into account inflation rates, cost of living and depreciation.” said Nzioka.
They urged the government to promote head teachers in Grade D1, saying the progression of the tutors at that level has stagnated for long.
“We also request that the progression of head teachers in Grade D1 be considered, given that many have stagnated in that grade,” he said.
Dr Kipsang promised to forward the proposals to the government and said the heads were shouldering huge responsibility after it was said that the junior secondary school (JSS) will be domiciled in primary schools.
He said primary school teachers were expected to take Grade Seven learners through basic sciences which will require collaboration with nearby secondary schools to access laboratories and learning materials.
In the list of demands, they proposed that the annual capitation per child be increased from Sh1,400 to Sh7,500.
The head teachers, who run more than 23,000 schools, said they want more funds because of inflation and the high cost of living.