Crisis greets mass transfer of school heads to home counties

Confusion has gripped education sector following reversal of the delocalisation policy, with hundreds of teachers seeking transfers back to their home counties.

In various parts of the country, many schools have been left under the management of deputy head teachers and senior teachers after the transfer of most principals. 

MPs and teachers’ unions have been at the forefront in pushing for reversal of the delocalisation policy, saying it was being used to punish teachers rather than improve education standards.

Those against the policy have argued that it has led to the break-up of families after teachers were transferred to regions far away from their loved ones.

In Rachuonyo North sub-county in Homa Bay, more than 100 teachers have been transferred, leaving most schools to be run by deputy heads or senior teachers.

Karachuonyo Education Forum, led by chairman Sam Agutu and Secretary Anderson Ojwang, expressed concern over the unfolding scenario in the education sector.

They said various education and administrative programmes have been paralysed by the transfers.

Forum leadership appealed to the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to urgently address the emerging teachers and leadership management crisis in the area to avoid poor performance in national examinations.

“A school like Adhiro Primary School in North Ward is now run by a senior teacher after the head teacher was transferred. How do we implement the administrative and academic programmes without the principal?” Ojwang quipped.

Ogutu said the situation was undermining various educational programmes that had been put in place to be implemented in various local schools.

He noted that the implementation of Competency Based Curriculum is now under threat in most local schools after the transfer. Parliament recently halted the delocalisation policy and has now caused confusion after teachers applied to be reposted to their home districts. TSC had requested teachers who wanted to go back to their home districts to apply online. Last week, the commission started posting teachers back to their home districts, which has  created a crisis.

In the Eastern region, some teachers who had already settled in their new places of work have been left confused following the policy reversal.

While some of the affected teachers said they had not requested for transfers, their colleagues are happy to return to schools near their homes.

Policy shift

Misyani Girls High School principal Lucia Robert warned that the policy shift may create a shortage in some schools.

She said most teachers would want to move out of Machakos because it is not classified as a hardship area.

“Teachers who had been transferred from Machakos, where there is no hardship allowances will not want to come back. Most teachers will want to move to Kitui but may not be replaced,” she warned.

 Her counterpart in Matungulu Boys in the same county, Joseph Makau shared similar sentiments. He said delocalisation was good because teachers working away from their homes directed all their efforts to teaching rather than being involved in local businesses, farming or local politics. With the reversal of delocalisation, Makau said the culture is going to creep back thus affecting academic performance.

“There are many other examples I can give. Head teachers working in schools near their homes had also piled a lot of debts,” said Makau.

Machakos Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) Executive Secretary Musembi Katuku welcomed the policy shift but cautioned that it be done gradually.

“These are normal transfers but they have to be done gradually. This is a reversal of delocalisation where some teachers felt they had been taken places far from their homes,” Katuku noted.

In Kiambu, however, teachers’ union have urged the government to effect the transfers.

Both Kiambu East and West Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) branch secretaries reported that teachers who were transferred from the county have returned. Kiambu East branch Secretary Samuel Kamau said teachers and principals from other counties deployed in the region have refused to return to their home counties.

“Teachers want to come back to Kiambu but those from other counties such as Muranga, Machakos, Narok and Kajiado have said they will not leave thus disadvantaging those from Kiambu,” he said.

“We want to petition TSC to effect the policy fairly and make it compulsory for all to return to their former stations,” Kamau added. He also noted that delocalisation has negatively impacted on the education standards in the area, noting that most head teachers deployed in the county during the exercise have no interest in the performance of learners.

“I can say without fear of contradiction that the policy has been counterproductive. For instance, the school I was heading before becoming a union official had seen its mean standard score nose diving after my successor who is not a local took over,” he said.

His sentiments were echoed by his Kiambu West counterpart Michael Muna, who said the exercise should not be voluntarily.

“There are those who do not want to return to their former stations because they are enjoying hardship allowances in such places as Ndeiya in Limuru and Karai in Kikuyu which are classified as semi-arid areas. They were actually directly deployed there from TSC so that they can benefit at the expense of those from Kiambu,” he said.

Education consultant Clement Gicharu urged TSC to be serious on the matter in order to improve education standards across the board.

Affected persons

Gicharu, the former Kiambu East Knut General Secretary, lauded the government for stopping delocalisation, saying it is immaterial if affected persons fail to return to their mother counties.

“The policy was obsolete and we in the education sector are happy about it. However, people want to remain in Kiambu because it is more developed than others regions and our infrastructure is adequate but they should be kind enough and return to their former schools,” he said.

At the same time, Kiambu Kuppet chairperson Rose Kiiru said delocalisation programme saw some married secondary school teachers start new families as some marriages broke up. She said a majority of the over 4,000 secondary school teachers were moved from their home areas to faraway zones.

In Nyandarua, hundreds of teachers who were affected by the delocalisation programme are still trooping to TSC offices seeking transfer to their original areas.

A spot check at the Nyahururu TSC sub-county office showed a total of about 150 teachers have either exited or moved into the sub county through transfers since January.

There were, however, several others seeking transfers and visited the offices to check status of their requests.

Nyandarua Knut Secretary John Ndung’u said a majority of union members transferred from the county have started to move back.

“A large number of staff seeking transfer is still pending because many of the teachers want to be posted to urban schools, which are already full,” Ndung’u noted.

He said many others who had been transferred to Nyandarua through delocalisation are refusing to be moved “from their new home.”

His Kuppet counterpart Julius Macharia said many of the teachers in Nyandarua who are almost retiring are taking advantage of delocalisation reversal to return to their home counties.