The present budgetary crisis facing the education sector is a confirmation of poor planning and implementation of policies that has bedeviled the Ministry of Education (MoE) in particular and the government in general for the last decade.
It has been clear for a while that the transition from the 8-4-4 system of education to the Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) would be rocky not because of any complexity in the curriculum but because of the casual manner that the current top leadership in the Executive arm of government – Cabinet, Treasury and the MoE-have tended to use to solve serious challenges.
The ongoing demonstrations against the government by the Generation Z (Gen Z) on several grievances is a confirmation that the Executive and to some extent the Legislature have failed miserably in executing their duties.
When CBC was introduced, the MoE should have documented all the requirements of the sector to enable its successful implementations. Take the teacher requirement as an example. In CBC, primary and secondary education lasts for six years each implying that 50 per cent of basic education is now at a secondary school level. This fact in addition to that CBC is a technical curriculum implies that much more teachers are required at the secondary school level than in the 8.4.4 system.
The employment of 46,000 intern teachers – most of who are in secondary schools – was therefore a response to the reality of the demand at that level rather than because of the magnanimity of President William Ruto’s government as claimed- misleadingly – by some government sycophants.
During the drafting of the 2024/2025 Financial Bill it became clear that the government was not willing to convert the terms of service of intern teachers to Permanent and Pensionable (P&P) terms leading to these teachers going on strike. This led the education and research committee of the National Assembly to intervene by convincing the Treasury to fund this transition with KSh18 billion.
During the build up to the passage of the Financial Bill and the opposition to it, the supporters of the bill urged that it was important to pass it so that the teachers could be employed. This is a red herring intended to divide the youth. The reality is that teachers are required in schools because there are students to be taught but not that they are employed because the government is an employment bureau that is sympathetic to the unemployed youth.
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It is time that the Cabinet ring-fences certain social sector requirements that must be funded as opposed to those that can be funded later – like construction of roads, dams and stadiums. Furthermore, the government could change certain policies towards a win – win situation of employing teachers without additional costs. For example, transferring Grade 9 students to be domiciled in Senior Secondary Schools (JSS) would save a lot of resources to the Ministry.
Between July and December 2024 the Ministry intends to construct 20, 000 classrooms in primary schools for Grade 9 students at a cost of KSh23 billion in addition to the need for laboratories and teaches.
If the Cabinet could just decide to transfer the Grade 9 to JSS then the money for building these classrooms could be used to employ the teachers at no extra cost because JSS have classrooms, laboratories and teachers. The 46,000 interns would then be confirmed on P&P terms and deployed to stabilize the staffing situation at Grade 7 and 8 that are seriously understaffed.
Why does it become so difficult to make such a simple and straight forward decision? Are there senior officials in the Treasury and the MoE and possibly Cabinet that stand to benefit from construction of these unnecessary classrooms? Are these not the actions that make adults begin to agree with Gen Z demonstrators that there is something amiss in the governance of all sectors of the government?
Is Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu unable to recommend to the government to make these changes or he is held captive by some powerful people who have interests in the sector other than the public interests? The citizens are watching with keen interest how the National Assembly will vote for the second 2024 Financial Bill. By now the MPs know the possible consequences of enraging the citizens.
Mwalimu Andrew Kibet
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