The Government has expressed concern over incidences of invasion of schools over claims of poor results in national examinations, which have seen some teachers being harassed and assaulted.
Education Cabinet Secretary (CS), Dr. Ezekiel Machogu, said that a few cases of teacher harassment over claims of poor performance by candidates have been witnessed in some schools since results of the 2023 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) Examination were released on Monday, January 8th, 2024.
Machogu in a statement, said that the Ministry is disturbed by the unfortunate trend, which appears to create the impression that the burden of poor performance in examinations, must be exclusively borne by teachers, especially the heads of institutions.
“We wish to remind communities behind these regrettable attacks that learner achievement in examinations is the reflection of the overall input from all stakeholders, including parents, teachers, and candidates themselves,” said Machogu.
The CS added that the Ministry of Education and the Teachers’ Service Commission (TSC), have put in place a robust and elaborate mechanism for evaluating the performance of teachers and field officers, which always ensures non-performing staff are dealt with by existing laws and policies.
“Going forward, the Ministry of Education will treat any acts of invasion of schools to frog-march teachers out of their workstations as a crime, that will prompt firm and decisive action from law enforcers,” said the CS.
He further said, “Any stakeholder who is aggrieved by the perceived poor performance of schools in national examinations, is advised to follow legal means to report to relevant authorities for action.”
By Joseph Ng’ang’a
