Junior Secondary School (JSS) teachers are advocating to be delinked from primary school leadership in order to eliminate what they describe as unnecessary friction in their working environment. Currently, JSS teachers operate under the heads of primary schools where these junior schools are located. Reports indicate that some primary school heads have compelled newly recruited JSS teachers to take on primary school classes, which has further complicated the situation.
The JSS teachers, most of whom are graduates who would have been posted to teach secondary schools under the 8-4-4 curriculum, are calling for independent operation. JSS Teachers’ National Chairman Omari Omari emphasized the need for this independence, stating, “It is time for the teachers to operate independently.” He made these remarks in Nairobi, where the teachers also expressed the need for an independent trade union, claiming that existing unions, such as the Kenya National Union of Teachers and the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers, have not effectively advocated for their rights.
During a World Teachers’ Day luncheon organized by Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna, the teachers demanded that the government establish a clear command system for managing JSS teachers. Omari criticized the current structure, asserting that having JSS teachers under primary school head teachers is untenable. “Allow the JSS teachers to be independent; most schools are currently crime scenes where JSS teachers want to fight head teachers, and head teachers want to fight our teachers,” he added.
The event was attended by early childhood development education (ECDE), primary and secondary school teachers, as well as officials from Kuppet and the Teachers Service Commission (TSC). They urged Senator Sifuna to propose legislation that would separate JSS management from primary school oversight. Omari also called for a teachers’ representative to be included on the TSC, which currently does not have a teacher’s voice in its ranks.
Senator Sifuna supported the inclusion of teachers in the TSC, highlighting that it was part of the ODM proposals to the now-collapsed Building Bridges Initiative (BBI), which was deemed unconstitutional by the courts in 2022. “Under the BBI, it was ODM that pushed for this and even proposed the formation of a Health Service Commission to address health matters, but unfortunately, this did not come to pass,” Sifuna stated. “It is high time we pushed for this to ensure the well-being of teachers.”
