Why it is important for MoE to hire competent school boards

All learning institutions have boards whose main mandate is policy making and enacting them. They are also responsible for setting the direction, through particular visions, goals and missions. This is done through the Education Cabinet Secretary.

In a nutshell, it means that the quality of operations in any given institution, is determined by the nature of the board that is put in place by the school community and the larger education fraternity.

Functions of the school boards are entrenched in law under the Basic Education Act.2013 No.14 of 2013, which has well pronounced roles.

ALSO READ:

Gov’t to appeal court ruling that declared paying school fees through e Citizen unconstitutional

They are responsible for providing oversight to learning institutions and the office of the principal, for the benefit of learners. It’s basically composed of representatives from parents, teachers, school sponsors, the county education board and the special groups.

The boards, serve for a term of three years and eligible for Re-appointment for one more term of three years. This means that a good board member can only be in office for a maximum of 6 years.

It’s however unfortunate to learn that we have other board members who have been in office past the stipulated time.

Such office bearers are so much obsessed with power and imagine that they are far above the school principal, making the operations of the principal increasingly hard. There should be a booklet stratifying their roles and a caveat Incase the same rules are violated.

With such board members in place, the operations of the institutions are likely to grind to a halt then the head of institution is blamed.

Heads of institutions have to observe their Boards imminently and dismiss those that behave weirdly. Some heads keep quiet and suffer in silence. Some would even go ahead to make it a prayer item to have such board members fail to get elected, just to find them elected again.

Some unscrupulous Board of Management members have stealthily pushed their way in securing school tenders thereby compromising the integrity of procurement processes and denting the reputation of the entire Board of Management.

In this context, the fairness of requisite demands is completely undermined, fairness, transparency completely plunged into disarray. This would invalidate effective management of a particular institution and contravene the institutions regulations.

ALSO READ:

Tragic incident in Machakos: 9-year-old boy hangs self with shoelace

Some evil board of Management go ahead and incite the community against the heads of institutions In case they feel that they are not benefitting enough from the school resources.

Other tenders are awarded indirectly through their proxies. The entire board is unlikely able to realize this but a few influential individuals lobby to secure tenders for their people.

One other very critical prerequisite is the level of education of the board members. Heads of institutions are finding it increasingly hard to work with some board members because of their inferior level of education, most of which is class eight. It’s very hard for most of them to view aspects from an informed perspective and sustain themselves in a heated argument.

The Ministry of education has to insist on good academic background so that the board can have diverse experts.

It’s additionally wrong that some board members have become so nagging to heads of institutions and have ended up spending most of their time in school expecting hand-outs from schools. Just like the medieval hyena looking at the swaying hands of a walking human being imagining it’s being tossed out to them.

As Jesus Christ was recruiting His disciples, he never chose idlers but people who were engaged by a certain vocation. Choosing idle people is detrimental to the principal’s administration since most of them spend alot of time doing nothing in the school compound and offices.

It’s important for The ministry of education to strictly consider tenure of office, academic qualifications, people who have integrity and finally members who don’t look at the school as a cash cow.

By Hillary Muhalya

Muhalya is a long-serving teacher based in the North-Rift