- JSS pioneer teachers of 2023 should be given a clear, merit-based pathway to leadership positions, including Deputy Headteacher roles.
- Pioneering experience should count as professional capital, while stressing that promotion must still be based on qualifications and performance, not automatic recognition.
- MoE, TSC, and school leaders have been urged to consult classroom teachers on the leadership structures needed for comprehensive primary schools.
The Junior Secondary School revolution has moved forward, but one question remains difficult to ignore: what happens to the teachers who carried the system when it was still finding its feet? The JSS pioneers of 2023 were not joining an established system; they were entering unfamiliar territory and helping to build it from the ground up, facing new curriculum demands, changing structures, new assessment expectations and learners transitioning into a different phase of education. They were the people expected to make policy work in real classrooms.
Three years later, Kenya should have a serious conversation about what comes next for these teachers. Their contribution should not end with having survived the most difficult phase of the transition; their experience should become a foundation for professional growth, leadership and institutional stability. The question is not whether every JSS pioneer should automatically become a deputy headteacher; that would undermine professional standards. The question is whether deserving pioneers who possess the required qualifications, experience, performance record and leadership ability should have a clear and credible pathway toward leadership positions. The answer should be yes.
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Experience Earned Under Pressure
When Junior Secondary School was introduced, many of its structures were still evolving. Teachers had to interpret new expectations while simultaneously teaching learners, dealing with curriculum changes, assessment demands, parental concerns and administrative adjustments as they came. They were not merely classroom teachers — they became problem-solvers, interpreters of policy, mentors to colleagues, and a bridge between government policy and the realities of schools. A policy document cannot teach a teacher how to manage a complex transition, and a workshop cannot reproduce years of practical experience; institutional knowledge is acquired through doing the work, confronting challenges and learning from mistakes. The JSS pioneers have done that work, and Kenya should not treat their pioneering years as a historical footnote — those years should form part of the professional capital they carry into the next stage of their careers.
That experience is directly relevant to the leadership demands of the schools JSS now sits within. The comprehensive primary school is more complex than the traditional primary model, bringing together learners at different developmental stages and requiring teachers and administrators to navigate different curriculum expectations, assessment approaches and learner needs.
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The Deputy Headteacher role in such a school is not simply someone who takes charge when the headteacher is absent — it can involve coordinating teachers, learner welfare, discipline, curriculum implementation, assessment, administration and communication with parents and the wider school community. Teachers with substantial JSS experience have already been exposed to many of these responsibilities, and that experience should be considered as Kenya develops its next generation of school leaders.
A Merit-Based Pathway, Not a Shortcut
There will understandably be concerns about whether recognising JSS pioneers could create a shortcut to promotion, and those concerns should be addressed through clear safeguards. No teacher should be appointed to a leadership position merely because they joined JSS in 2023 — pioneering status alone cannot replace qualifications, competence or performance. But the opposite approach is equally problematic: the system should not disregard years of relevant experience simply because a teacher happens to belong to the pioneering cohort. The appropriate solution is a transparent, competitive and merit-based pathway, where those who qualify compete, those who demonstrate leadership ability advance, and those who require additional preparation receive appropriate professional development. That is how recognition can coexist with professionalism.
This also matters for teacher motivation, which is often overlooked in a debate that tends to focus on curriculum, infrastructure, examinations, capitation and technology. Teachers are more likely to embrace reform when they believe the system values their contribution, and if they repeatedly receive additional responsibilities without meaningful professional recognition or career progression, frustration can grow. Kenya cannot ask teachers to become agents of transformation while making them feel invisible within the transformation they are implementing — a motivated teacher is more likely to invest in professional growth, mentor colleagues, support learners and take ownership of institutional goals, which makes career progression an education-quality issue as much as a human-resource one.
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The future of JSS should not be designed entirely from boardrooms. The Ministry of Education, the Teachers Service Commission, teacher unions, school leaders and classroom teachers need sustained consultation on the leadership and career structures required by the comprehensive school model, since those working directly with learners understand where administrative structures work, where they fail, and what kind of leadership schools now require. Their voices should be part of the reform process.
The JSS pioneers of 2023 entered the system when the road ahead was uncertain. They adapted, taught, experimented, endured criticism and helped schools navigate one of the most significant changes in Kenya’s education landscape, carrying the reform when it was still fragile. Now that JSS is becoming established, their contribution should translate into professional opportunity — not automatic promotion, but recognition of experience and a credible career pathway. Kenya needs strong schools, motivated teachers and competent leadership, and career structures that reward responsibility and allow experienced classroom practitioners to grow into effective administrators without losing sight of their professional roots. The future of Junior Secondary School is not only about where learners are going — it is also about what happens to the teachers who helped take Kenya there.
By Hillary Muhalya
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