Education News Making The Headlines This Monday Morning,
What you should know: Teacher Service Commission (TSC) has been advised by Antoney Luvinzu to make it easy for teachers to self-organise to identify and address their own professional needs, Alternative Providers of Basic Education and Training (APBET) Schools and Mombasa parents want the Ministry of Education to introduce a grace period within which parents should pay fees for the next term and headteachers asked not to chase poor learners from school.
1. TSC strife with teachers detrimental to learners
Antoney Luvinzu, a renowned author at the Standard, suggests that the Teachers’ Service Commission (TSC) should make it easy for teachers to self-organise to identify and address their own professional needs.
He argues that teachers should feel valued, involved in the decision-making process so that they own it, to feel seen and heard. This, he says, will make the teacher happy, thereby translating to a happy learner. Something that guarantees a high-quality education.
To him, TSC is not doing it right over the Teacher Professional Development programme, even though it seems to have a vision of the kind of teacher they want in the classroom — “well equipped in the latest best practices in pedagogy.”
“The policies are good in themselves (referring to TSC), but how they have seemingly shoved down the throats of teachers, so to speak, could be counterproductive, disastrous even,” says Luvinzu in his article.
The author wonders why such a great idea could be muffled and choked just because the approach does not seem well thought out.
As he puts it, teachers’ education needs induction, noting that new teachers entering the service think differently and see the world quite differently, unlike the previous generation. He opined they should not be handled in the same manner.
“Here is someone who embodies the very philosophy underpinning modern education best practices — collaboration, stewardship, open-mindedness.” he writes.
In conclusion, Anthony says the biggest loser will be the learner if the clash between TSC and teachers is not looked into.
2. Fear of dropouts as parents decry fee hike ahead of next school calendar
Parents and guardians in Mombasa say the condensed school calendar has denied them ample time to save for school fees. They are frustrated over financial constraints because of fee hikes following series of short holiday breaks.
They fear their children may fail to resume learning next term due to a lack of school fees. Their income generating avenues have been disrupted by Covid-19.
“How will I be able to raise fees, shopping and transport of my child within one week, as a parent I feel so strained that the only hope is to ask my child to stay at home because I have no job or any other avenue to raise fees,” Mwajumbe Salim, a 46-year-old widow living in Jomvu in Mombasa told the media.
Nyamvula Chimera, who has two children in Mbuguni Secondary School in Kwale, says her children are likely to miss out on school due to the fee burden.
“I sell Mahamri to earn a living and the little I make is just too little to sustain my two children in secondary school. Again I have other three children competence-based who are also straining us due to expenses brought about by the competence-based curriculum,” she said.
Also affected by the situation is the Alternative Providers of Basic Education and Training, dubbed APBET Schools. They advise that the ministry of education should introduce a grace period within which parents should pay fees for the next term. They want the government to ask school heads not to chase away needy children.
“We do not want a situation where many learners will stay away from school, the government needs to know that parents are overburdened with school fees due to the condensed calendar, therefore, they should direct that poor learner not to be chased from Schools,” said Lubambo, APBET secretary-general.
