The World Bank extended by one year, six years project The Kenya Secondary Education Quality Improvement Project (SEQIP) that was to end in December 2023.
The Director Projects Coordination and Delivery in the Ministry of Education Mr. Elijah Mungai said the Sh20 Billion project was meant to assist the country address the impediments to access Education.
“SEQIP focuses on the most educationally and economically disadvantaged areas as well as the poorest and most vulnerable children,” Said Mr Mungai
He added that the Ministry of Education is responsible for management, coordination, communication and research to inform decision making as well monitoring and evaluation project with support from partner agencies.
Mungai observed that the project aims to improve retention in upper primary and transition to secondary school by improving school infrastructure, offer scholarships, advocacy, gender sensitization and social support interventions to poor and vulnerable students.
The director reiterated collaborations with line agencies in the ministry of education is key to the success of the project saying each has a role to play in their respective scope of work.
In the SEQIP project, Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) offers system reform support through the development and introduction of Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) while Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) strengthening the national system for monitoring learning progress (MLP) and national examinations.
The SEQIP components focus to improve quality of teaching by reducing teacher shortage, to enhance teacher professional development implemented by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) and provision of textbooks which is implemented by the Kenya Literature Bureau (KLB).
The project objective aims to improve student learning in secondary education with emphasis on mathematics and science subjects championed by Center for Mathematics, Science and Technology in Africa (CEMASTEA).
To achieve the project development objective through effective and efficient implementation of the project activities, the project targeted specific geographical areas selected based on objective criteria.
Spreading the limited resources to all schools and students across the country would have resulted in too little investment in each school and student.
By Joseph Kamolo
