County Commissioners are set to provide leadership to the County Education Boards (CEB), upon the enactment of the Basic Education Bill, 2024. The bill, upon enactment, will replace the Basic Education Act, 2013.
The enactment of the Basic Education Act, 2013 saw the office of the Chairperson of District Education Boards (DEBs), which had, throughout the post independent period, held by a District Commissioner.
Under the Education Act, Cap 211, the District Commissioner was invariably the Chairperson of the DEB and the District Education Officer to be the Secretary and executive officer, of the board.
The Basic Education Act, 2013 did not provide room for membership of the National Government Administrative Officers (NGAO). This discounted any role of County Commissioners in the management of affairs concerning education in the Counties.
The Basic Education Bill, 2024, which is poised to replace the Basic Education Act, 2013 will see the County Commissioner return. The Bill is part of the ongoing policy and legislative reforms in accordance with the recommendations of the Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms.
The return of the County Commissioner at the centre of education and schooling at the County level has several advantages.
Education policy, standards, curricular and examinations needs interpretation and consequential enforcement at the school level. Enforcement of some of the policies, and regulations on education necessarily requires the authority, power and influence of the NGAO.
Free and Compulsory basic education, and managing issues that impedes children’s access to education in different part of the country, cannot be handled without the NGAO staff playing a part.
It is only right that the County Commissioner be a member of the County Education Board, to get the handle—first hand—of the policy thrust of every aspect of education for him or her to ensure efficient and effective management of the issues at hand.
NGAO staff has been at the centre of the management of national examinations, the 100 per cent transition policy, fighting teenage pregnancy and early marriages in some regions.
These fights are done in the context of ensuring access, equity and quality education. NGAO will now have a rounded picture of the foundations and implications of the policies they are helping to enforce through membership in County Education Boards.
The County Directors of Education and their officers at the Sub county levels regularly consult County Commissioners on matters which touch the safety and health of learners. Enforcement of certain regulations concerning the safety and health of learners cannot be done without the involvement of County Commissioners.
The enforcement of policies on strict adherence on school hours which bans provision of tuition outside the stipulated hours, days and the school calendar, ultimately depends on the County Commissioners.
Sitting in County Education Boards will help them to appreciate the logic of most of the policies, programmes and initiatives the Boards are steering. They have at their command, the structures necessary to implement them without demur.
Another advantage of the enlistment of NGAO in County Education Boards is that they are able to rally other government departments to support the boards in solving certain problems a basic education institution might be facing or is imminent danger of facing.
The County Commissioner is always available in the County in person. All the County Director of education, who is the secretary to the Board, needs to do is to walk to his or her office, request for support to implement a resolution CEB made concerning an issue, or a problem that has persistently faced an area or a school.
For example: I had the privilege, as a District Information Officer, to see the then Kirinyaga District Commissioner, Mr Francis Sigei, rally the area District Education Board (DEB) to address the persistent poor performance of students in KCSE in 1996. While learners in Primary Schools in the area were doing very well in KCPE, students in secondary schools recorded dismal results in KCSE.
Mr Sigei, now a lawmaker, mobilised the entire board members to visit secondary schools in the area, inspect the infrastructure of the schools. The Board members held long sessions with teachers and students to establish possible causes behind low educational outcomes in KCSE.
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One standard feature I noted was that the Board insisted on visiting the school library, the laboratories and the hostels and the dining halls. The three have an effect on the quality of teaching and learning and also on the safety and health of learners.
It was during these tours that I personally noted the neglect of the School Library system as a tool for learning by school administrations in nearly all the schools the Board members visited. The libraries were hardly open to the students. They were evidently in a state of dereliction.
I remember seeing most board members shaking their heads when they saw the bad state of the Library in a school in the area. I will not mention the school here.
The Board, through the leadership of Sigei, later took a few School Heads to visit secondary schools in Nairobi that were then always in the top ten schools in the KCSE ranking system. The purpose was to enable the school heads to see what good schools do with the resources available to them to ensure that children are given the best educational experience the curriculum prescribes.
It was in fact during these tours that I first developed a keen interest in education matters.
Suffice it to say that County Commissioners have the capacity and the infrastructure to change the trajectory of education in an area. In any case, education is at the core of everything the state or government does in a County. Education feeds into everything. Security, public health and development of any kind.
It is only right that the County Commissioners, the symbol of National Government out there, sit in County Education Boards.
By Kennedy Buhere
Mr Kennedy Buhere is Communication Officer at the Ministry of Education.
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