Shocking details emerge on interference of schools by Nakuru elected leaders
School heads association chair Kamau Manyara during a press conference in Nakuru on March 12, 2024.
Teachers in Nakuru have found themselves in the horns of a dilemma as politicians continue interfering with the running of the institutions.
Mtaa Wangu has established that teachers have been operating in fear and duress as politicians appear hell bent on micromanaging the institutions of learning.
Constant summons by area leaders, phone call summons and storming of the schools to confront teachers over their dealings with the students have put school heads in confusion, unable to discharge their mandates accordingly.
A head teacher of a school in Nakuru west revealed to this reporter that the politicians have placed parents and students on a collision path with the learners through misinformation and incitement.
“A politician will ask the school not to send away the learner after promising to pay their school fees only to pay a small fraction of the money. They then tell the parents that they have cleared the fees and if the schools send the student home to collect the balance, they are faced with the wrath of the parents who believe that their leader paid the fees,” said the teacher.
Another school administrator indicated that the politicians make constant phone calls to the head teachers to scold them for one issue or the other.
Sometimes the school heads are summoned to the politicians’ offices to respond to allegations raised by parents.
“Some of the politicians keep reporting the teachers to their employer accusing them of incompetence and misconduct. It really becomes very difficult for these teachers to operate in this kind of environment,” said the teacher.
The effect of the politicians’ actions is that some head teachers give in to the demands and let everything run on autopilot which degrades the levels of education standards, while others decide to play hard ball knowing well they are risking their career.
“The head teacher who has family to feed and a school to manage is left torn between discharging his duties as per his job description and risks being in bad books with the leader or following the demands of the principal and risk mismanaging the school,” said the school boss.
The Kenya Secondary School Heads Association (KESHA) chairman Mr Kamau Manyara warned that the harassment of teachers is negatively impacting on learning in the said schools whose administration is becoming impossible.
Mr Manyara noted that the increasing cases in which politicians are inciting communities to storm the schools and confront teachers is creating a difficult environment for learning.
“Our teachers are being harassed by the politicians and parents who are supposed to complement them in the education of their children. This is an issue of great concern to us because there is a way we relate with the learners and carry out our teachings,” said Mr Manyara.
He called upon the elected leaders to respect and empower teachers to carry out their mandates as expected without interference.
“There are channels that can be followed whenever there is a dispute. I therefore urge politicians to follow the same. A school head is not entitled to harassment from anyone,” he said.