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{
    "id": 34049,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/34049/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 331,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Prof. Ongeri",
    "speaker_title": "The Minister for Education",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 124,
        "legal_name": "Samson Kegeo Ongeri",
        "slug": "samson-ongeri"
    },
    "content": " Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, may I take the earliest opportunity to congratulate you for being the Speaker of the moment. Two weeks ago, Eng. Gumbo asked for a Ministerial Statement on the value and the need for the annual head teachers’ conferences. The Kenya Primary Schools Head Teachers Association (KEPSHA) and the Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Association (KESHA) are recognized professional bodies for the head teachers in public and private primary and secondary schools in Kenya. These annual conferences give an opportunity for head teachers to come together and learn new ways of managing schools. It gives them an opportunity to exchange views on innovative ways of managing schools and share best practices in management. They also share challenges and experiences on improving schools’ performance and governance. More notably, this year’s theme of the conference was Transformational Leadership for the Child’s Welfare. These conferences have always been held in July because of the Ramadhan Festival which normally falls in August. The average cost of the conference is about Kshs30,000 which is used for the conference at the district level and paid for by the district associations while individual primary head teachers pay Kshs100 per month and those of secondary schools pay Kshs1,000 per month for other expenses. At the provincial level, each delegate is assigned an average of Kshs6,000 to cater for the conference expenses while at the national level, the officials are assigned to pay Kshs3,000 for six days. These national conferences are funded by the teachers’ monthly contribution and other sponsors, for example, UNICEF, UNESCO, Oxford University Press and individual sponsors. Both KEPSA and KESHA which are the registered professional bodies regulate the amount to be paid to the head teachers as daily allowances. The resolutions of the national conferences have informed formulation of policies in education, especially in the management of education programmes like the Free Primary Education, the Free Day Secondary Education, Capitation Grants, School Management Curriculum Revision and Development and matters related to the Kenya national examination administration. Both KEPSA and KESHA have been directed to explore other cost effective measures to enable head teachers to address issues concerning them and those of the education sector in general for future district, provincial and national head teachers’ conferences. The measures to be addressed are decentralization of conference venues with the aim of reducing transport and accommodation cost, holding the conferences during the school holidays other than in August which is clearly known, engage more sponsors to come on board in order to ease the financial burden on the head teachers and schools and reduction of the number of delegates from each region in attendance to cut costs and ensure the school programmes are not interfered with."
}