The National Assembly’s Minority Leader Opiyo Wandayi has poked holes in the government’s management of Junior Secondary School (JSS), charging that it is wrong to place the children in the hands of frustrated teachers.
Observing that only a few teachers have been contracted to deliver the JSS curriculum, he said the quality of teaching has been compromised as the welfare of those contracted is at stake.
“There are not enough teachers in JSS; and even those who are there have been engaged on contract terms. No pension and no guarantee of renewing it yet you want to entrust the future of our children to these teachers!” he said.
Wandayi was speaking in Siaya town during the Maseno West annual Diocesan thanksgiving service.
A number of JSS teachers have since renewed their internship contracts for the second year running on a Ksh17,000 stipend, while others have refused to renew it demanding engagement on Permanent and Pensionable (P&P) terms.
The tough talking lawmaker asserted that confusion reigns high in the education sector and that Kenyan children in JSS are being given a raw deal due to poor government policies.
“The minister is saying that children can just go to JSS in the uniforms they had in primary schools!” Which is the correct government policy?” wondered Wandayi.
The Ugunja parliamentarian noted that the casual management of education in JSS is an indication of a government that does not know what it is doing.
In a recent circular, Education Cabinet Secretary (CS) Ezekiel Machogu advised teachers not to send back home pupils transiting from Grade 6 to 7 on the basis of lacking the requisite uniform.
In the meantime, Wandayi asked parents not to strain too much to take their children to far-flung schools where they may have been placed, reminding them that even the local day schools have the ability to produce quality grades.
He asked the community to consider coming together to find a way of uplifting the local schools that have not been recording impressive results.
By Erick Nyayiera
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