Secondary schools across the country are facing a potential administrative crisis as hundreds of principals are set to retire this year.
Many schools currently lack actual or acting deputy principals to immediately take over when the principals step down.
The leadership gap is expected to affect school operations, particularly in disadvantaged counties where promoted deputy principals are declining transfers.
Teachers in these areas have expressed frustration over delayed promotions, which has worsened the challenge of ensuring continuity in school management.
The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has been criticised for failing to promote teachers to deputy principal positions after they have served more than five years at a single station as stipulated by career progression guidelines.
Inconsistencies in promotions between counties have also emerged. Some teachers have advanced to acting deputy principal roles in certain regions while qualified counterparts in other counties remain overlooked, prompting calls for affirmative action.
The situation has raised concerns about the smooth implementation of the Competency-Based Education (CBE) syllabus in senior schools.
The Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) has decried the lack of readily available successors and warned that the gap could disrupt learning and syllabus coverage.
In Trans Nzoia County, more than 40 principals are approaching retirement without deputy principals in place to assume leadership.
Kwanza has 9 principals set to retire, Trans Nzoia East has 15, Trans Nzoia West 9 and Endebess 8. Both Trans Nzoia East and Endebess are classified as hardship areas.
There are also notable inequities in teacher distribution across the country. Schools in urban areas are overstaffed, while rural and disadvantaged counties face acute teacher shortages.
National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetang’ula recently highlighted a shortage of 28 teachers at Kolongolo Girls Secondary School in Trans Nzoia County as evidence of the imbalance.
Persistent shortages have raised questions about the government’s hiring of more than 100,000 teachers and its reported progress in balancing the national teacher-to-learner ratio.
Teachers are calling on the TSC to address the leadership vacuum promptly, warning that failure to fill the gaps could affect both management and the quality of learning in secondary schools-Kenyans.co.ke.
