Ashford examines how the experiences of retiring US principals reflect the growing challenges facing school leadership, mental health, discipline, and education reforms in Kenya.
The reflections of three retiring principals in the United States have opened an important conversation about the changing nature of schools and educational leadership in the modern world. After spending decades in classrooms and administrative offices, the veteran school leaders admitted that schools today are vastly different from the institutions they joined years ago.
Their observations reveal an education system under immense pressure from social change, technology, politics, mental health challenges, and shifting family structures. Although their experiences are from America, many of the issues they described closely resemble those that schools in Kenya are currently facing.
One of the biggest changes they identified is the transformation of the principal’s role. In the past, principals were mainly administrators. Their work centred on maintaining discipline, overseeing examinations, managing teachers, and ensuring school operations ran smoothly. Today, however, the modern principal has become far more than a manager. School heads are now expected to serve as instructional leaders, counsellors, mediators, mentors, motivators, public relations officers, and even mental health responders.
The retiring principals explained that modern school leadership is no longer about sitting in offices issuing instructions. Principals now spend considerable time supporting emotionally struggling learners, calming anxious parents, guiding stressed teachers, handling community expectations, and responding to public criticism. Leadership has become deeply human-centred.
This reality is highly relevant to Kenya, especially during the transition to Competency-Based Education (CBE). Under the new education structure, principals are expected to guide schools through curriculum reforms, pathway selection, talent development, learner-centred instruction, and continuous assessment systems. The school principal of today must understand pedagogy and learner development, not just administration.
Kenya, therefore, needs to rethink how it prepares school leaders. Many principals rise through teaching experience and seniority, yet modern leadership now requires additional competencies such as emotional intelligence, communication skills, digital literacy, conflict management, and psychological awareness. The school leader of the future must be trained to lead people, not simply systems.
Another issue raised by the retiring principals was the increasing politicisation of education. They explained that schools are no longer isolated learning institutions. Instead, they have become battlegrounds for political, cultural, and ideological debates. Issues involving curriculum content, discipline, student identity, books, religion, and social values now attract intense public attention.
The rise of social media has intensified this pressure. Small incidents that were once quietly resolved within schools can now spread nationally within hours. Principals today operate under constant scrutiny from parents, activists, bloggers, and politicians.
Kenya is experiencing a similar reality. School unrest, disciplinary cases, CBC debates, teacher conduct, and learner rights frequently become major topics of online discussion. In some instances, social media creates public judgment before investigations are completed. This has made school leadership more stressful than ever before.
The lesson for Kenya is clear. School leaders need institutional protection, communication training, and professional support systems. Principals cannot effectively lead if every decision becomes a public battlefield. The Ministry of Education and the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) must create frameworks that protect educators while also promoting accountability.
The retiring principals also spoke extensively about changing parenting patterns. According to them, parents today are far more involved in school matters than before. While parental involvement can strengthen education, it has also introduced tension in many schools. Teachers increasingly face resistance when disciplining learners or enforcing standards.
Many educators feel that the authority of schools has weakened significantly over the years. In previous generations, parents and teachers largely worked together to shape learner behaviour. Today, however, some parents immediately defend learners regardless of circumstances, making discipline more difficult.
Kenyan schools are facing similar challenges. Teachers often complain that some parents undermine discipline processes by shielding learners from accountability. At the same time, learners are increasingly exposed to social media cultures that challenge traditional authority structures.
The lesson here is that Kenya must rebuild the partnership between schools and families. Education cannot succeed when parents and teachers operate as opponents. Schools need strong parental engagement programmes that emphasise shared responsibility in raising disciplined and responsible learners.
The principals also highlighted rising emotional and mental health challenges among students. According to them, learners today carry enormous emotional burdens ranging from anxiety and depression to loneliness, family instability, and social pressure. The COVID-19 pandemic worsened many of these struggles.
Schools are now expected to handle emotional problems that were once managed mainly within families and communities. Teachers and principals, therefore, spend increasing amounts of time dealing with counselling, trauma response, behavioural intervention, and emotional support.
Kenya has also witnessed growing concern over learner mental health, school violence, substance abuse, and emotional instability. Cases of student unrest and indiscipline have become more frequent in some schools. These challenges reveal that academic success alone is no longer enough. Schools must also focus on emotional well-being.
The lesson for Kenya is urgent. Guidance and counselling departments should no longer exist merely on paper. Schools need professionally trained counsellors, mental health awareness programmes, and stronger emotional support systems for learners and teachers alike.
Despite all these challenges, the retiring principals still expressed hope in education. They emphasised that relationships remain at the heart of successful schools. Learners perform better when they feel seen, heard, valued, and supported. Teachers thrive when leadership is compassionate and collaborative.
Their advice to younger principals was simple but profound: be visible, build trust, support teachers, and connect with learners personally. Great schools are not built on fear alone; they are built on relationships.
For Kenya, this may be the most important lesson of all. Educational reforms, technology, infrastructure, and policies are important, but schools will always remain human institutions. Effective leadership must therefore combine professionalism with empathy.
The modern principal is no longer simply a custodian of rules and timetables.
They are builders of culture.
They are stabilisers during uncertainty.
They are mentors to teachers and guardians to learners.
And as schools continue to change across the world, one truth remains constant: education will always rise or fall on the quality of leadership within schools.
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That is why the future of Kenya’s education system will depend not only on classrooms, policies, or examinations, but also on the kind of school leaders the country chooses to nurture today.
Ashford teaches English and Literature in Gatundu North Sub-county and serves as Dean of Studies.
By Ashford Kimani
Ashford teaches English and Literature in Gatundu North Sub-county and serves as Dean of Studies.
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