KENYA: Bishop condemns assault on Head Teachers over students poor performance

Rt. Rev. Maurice Crowley of Kitale Diocese and Chairman of Commission for Education & Religious Education in Kenya issued a press statement to condemn the harassment of teachers by parents over poor performances on last year’s Kenya Certificate of Primary Education Exams KCPE.

This comes in the wake of media reports over serious assaults on teachers by irate parents who were angered by the poor performance of their schools.

According to Daily Nation Newspaper of January 4th 2012; a head-teacher committed suicide and scores of others were roughed up by irate parents protesting against poor results in last year’s KCPE examination. One school head was badly injured; another was dragged out of his office and warned never to set foot in the school. Six others were locked out of their offices by angry parents as the new school term started. In a number of schools across the country, head-teachers just went into hiding, fearing attacks from parents after their schools performed poorly, raising serious questions about the safety of teachers and school administrators.

In his statement, the bishop noted that many parents do not visit their children’s school to find out what their children are doing or even whether the teachers are effectively teaching or not. He therefore called upon all stakeholders which includes parents and guardians to play their rightful roles in the education life of their children.

The harassment of head teachers by parents for poor performance in the 2011 KCPE cannot be condoned.  It is sad that a head teacher has needlessly taken his life for fear of being lynched by parents over cancellation of KCPE results.

Performance in school is not the sole responsibility of the teacher. Parents too must play their role. Granted, many parents have taken little interest in what their children do in school – during school term or even the so called tuition.  The parents’ role seems to have been relegated to paying levies only and providing accommodation in the case of day school.

Many parents do not visit their children’s school to find out what their children are doing or even whether the teachers are effectively teaching or not.  In fact, some parents and guardians do not know the names of the teachers of their children, leave alone friends of their children.

Parents do not know what children do in school. However, when results are released, they are up in arms blaming teachers whom they do not know.  Yes, it is time for education reforms that will clearly and legally spell out the participation of parents.  It is equally important to involve the sponsors. Further, the role of teachers is not only teaching the pupils and students but also character and value formation. The participation of the Teachers Union is critical so that they can keep the teachers on their toes in matters of performance.

It is a fact that some teachers are doing very little.  It is time teachers realized that their involvement in business outside the school and negligence of their core responsibility over the pupil’s learning is impacting negatively on their performance.  An effective Quality Assurance strategy has to be put in place. The education system has to be for the benefit of the child and the society at large.

Let us reform the education system to ensure parents alongside other stakeholders play their rightful roles in the education life of their children.  The roles should include among others, paying the required levies (fees), and buying school uniform, following up on the performance of their children in class and outside and also in character formation.

All must effectively take up their responsibilities seriously.  Blame game will not make our children learn better.

Rt. Rev. Maurice Crowley

Chairman

Commission for Education & Religious education

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