Kenya and the United Kingdom are spearheading a five billion dollars’ fundraiser to promote the education of needy learners from developing countries, Education Cabinet Secretary (CS), Prof George Magoha announced yesterday.
He said President Uhuru Kenyatta and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson were working on modalities to mobilize financial resources to boost the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) kitty and ensure that the plight of students from less fortunate families was addressed.
“H.E President Uhuru Kenyatta and The Rt Hon Boris Johnson prime minister of the United Kingdom are spearheading a Five-Billion-dollar fund raiser which will culminate in London on the 28th and 29th of July and Part of this money for GPE will come back to help the education sector in Kenya.” he said.
Prof. Magoha reaffirmed the Government’s commitment to provide universal education to all to ensure that bright and needy students living in slum areas had a chance to pursue their dreams irrespective of their challenges. He said the government had deliberately allocated at least 3,000 slots for students from slum areas as part of the 9,000 learners targeted for the programme nationally in line with President Uhuru Kenyatta’s wish to have a transformative change towards ensuring equal opportunity for all is achieved.
The CS was speaking at Kanduiwa Primary School in Kasarani, Langas area in Eldoret where he launched Elimu Scholarship Program in conjunction with Equity Bank.
Equity Bank, Eldoret Branch Manager, Lorna Rotich and Ministry of Interior officials conducted the visits today, revealing that the government target 155 homes for 137 scholarships in Uasin Gishu County.
“Today I have managed to visit three beneficiaries who are; Vivian Atieno, Joseph Imbugwa and Adrian Mamline and they highly qualify for this programme.” he highlighted.
“As you are aware, education is the only equalizer and the government is investing heavily in the Competency Based Curriculum (CBC). There is a team working round the clock to ensure it is moving forward as far as the implementation process is concerned,” he clarified.
The CS had earlier in the day visited Joseph Imbuga’s home who has seven siblings and who passed well, scoring 340 marks.
He noted Joseph was called to Uasin Gishu High school which is a day school and the Ministry has changed the admission to AIC Chebisaas High School.
“This is a very good government scholarship and will cater for the period he is in high school until he finishes,” he affirmed.
As regards books for grade six, The CS said the government has already completed the procurement process and is now at the process where the books are going to be printed and availed when required.
“Books for grade five are already in schools and we are going to confirm they are in every school and every child has a book.” Said the CS.
Magoha noted that the government has already given 25 per cent of the budget on education and as far as CBC is concerned the teachers training is ongoing both on job with new ones starting next month as the fast cohort.
“We continue to train teachers and now over a hundred thousand have so far been trained and this is an ongoing process. The biggest elephant in the room is the transition which comes in 2022 to 2023 and the government is very well prepared,” he observed.
The CS said they have been given 1.9 billion shillings to procure desks and chairs and they are going to deliberately identify schools that they are going to procure at secondary school’s level.
As far as primary schools are concerned Prof. Magoha noted there is Sh900 million which will buy desks for schools that will have been identified by Prof. Chege and her team.
On matters of class rooms, the CS said the government is identifying the gap and through identification by the team they are going to build classes where it’s required most.
“As Kenyans we should not worry on the roll out of CBC programs as such the government is in full control and truth should be the norm on matters to do with CBC. Much has been peddled around and it’s not true just ignore.” He affirmed.
On Covid-19, the CS warned education stakeholders against reneging in the gourd against the disease but to continue adhering to Ministry of Health protocol.
He assured that they are managing the situation as institutions of learning continues with their respective programmes despite the situation.
“Teachers have been vaccinated and we are going to vaccinate them more as more vaccines come to ensure they are completely vaccinated to handle their duties effectively.” He mentioned.
By Hassan Adan Ali and Kelvin Kiprop
