Police save Jonathan Gloag Academy CEO from irate parents

Activities at the prestigious Jonathan Gloag Academy in Lang'ata, Nairobi were paralysed on Tuesday after irate parents stormed the institution over creation of a chief executive officer position.

Parents said they were not consulted over the post held by Mr Collins Oywera.

What seemed to have infuriated them most was a decision made by the CEO to send the school head teacher, Mr William Mulema, on early retirement.

It took the intervention of police to escort Mr Oywera out of the institution with a majority of parents who had not seen him physically, struggling to distinguish him from protestors.

“Where is he? We want to know him, who is this man seeking to tarnish the name of our school? Collins must go. No Mulema, no school. No Mulema, no school,” parents chanted outside the school compound, forcing the deployment of police officers to contain the situation.

Following an agreement through their WhatsApp group, the parents had agreed to keep their children away from school.

In a letter dated March 28, Mr Oywera said Mulema was to retire by the end of the school term after serving for five years.

“While the announcement may come as a surprise to some, we accepted Mr Mulema’s personal request to retire and embark upon a new chapter of his life and we wholeheartedly support him in his transition. We are grateful for his years of service and wish him the very best in his well-deserved retirement,” the letter reads.

He informed parents that the school is seeking a new head teacher who would uphold the high standards of education that Mr Mulema had inculcated.

Interestingly, it has emerged that Mr Mulema was not consulted about his retirement and that the decision reached by the CEO was allegedly personal.

“That Mr Mulema has NOT attained retirement age, and if he has, an appropriate and transparent succession process could have been in place to ensure a smooth transition with adequate lead time,” the petition signed by parents reads.

Parents said that they will not relent until the school management quashes the CEO position, which is not in the Education Act.

Mr Peter Alingo, one of the parents said they have invested in the school for many years and would do everything to protect its image.

“We have come here to salvage this school. Particularly, we are concerned with the position that has been created in this school, the CEO position. We do not understand this, and it is not provided under the education Act. The person who is sitting in that position is not an educationist, has nothing to do with the management of the school but is in charge of hiring and firing,” Mr Alingo said.

Mr Alingo said the CEO has been making decisions singlehandedly including a deduction of Sh1,000 from each teacher for coming late to the school.

It also emerged that the school has been operating without a Parent Teacher Association (PTA), which is a school-based organisation supposed to ensure that parents are directly involved in the affairs of the institution.

In the petition, parents now want the creation of a PTA going forward.

They have also demanded that teachers who were penalised for reporting late to school be compensated and have vowed to continue with the protest until the matter is fully addressed.