By E, KNA
The Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) in Garissa are now calling on the government to rescind its decision to domicile Junior Secondary (JS) in primary schools and instead host them in secondary schools as initially planned.
Led by the Executive secretary in Garissa branch Melchizedek Igunza, the teachers argued that the decision to have JS in primary schools has created confusion in both administrative and professional duties and in co-curricular activities.
The teachers are further pushing for the autonomy of JS schools so that they can have their own structures as independent entities.
“JS teachers and the school itself being domiciled in a primary school does not make it a primary school and for that reason, it should not be run like a primary school but by qualified secondary teachers,” Igunza said.
“The retooling that the JS teachers went through was not to handle primary schools but secondary schools and so the responsibilities that go with JS must be the same with those in senior school such that teachers in senior schools can be free to be transferred to JS and vice versa,” he added.
Igunza further regretted that there are no resources such as laboratories, Departments and department heads for JS learners in primary schools thus disadvantaged the students.
“There is no clear structure for JS teachers to address human resource issues. The teachers are just there while the head of the institution is coming from primary school,” he said.
Ayako Wilfred, a JS teacher in Garissa said that there is also a lack of a clear career progression policy for JS teachers leaving them unable to plan out their careers well.
“We want to make it clear that this is not just a fight but a fight that affects generations. On one side is a generation of JS teachers who are very young in the profession, and then there is the generation of the learners that we teach in JS. JS teachers are fighting for both their survival and the wellbeing of the learners,” Ayako said.
