The Government has rolled out the construction of Sh8 billion Competence Based Curriculum (CBC) infrastructural development in schools to facilitate 100 percent transition rate of learners in primary and junior secondary schools.
Specifications guiding the program state that the cost of building a single classroom has been pegged at Sh788, 000 with local contractors targeted to benefit and, therefore, encouraged to submit their bids on time.
However, only those with the requisite capacity to implement the projects will be considered, Kisumu County Commissioner (CC) Josephine Ouko stated while officially launching the programme at St Teresa’s Girls Secondary School.
Subsequently, Ouko issued a stern warning to those who may be tempted to charge unreasonably high costs in a futile attempt to embezzle public funds to think twice as the committee would eliminate such bids.
She was addressing Heads of Department including Deputy County Commissioners, County and Sub- County Directors of Education, Procurement Officers and Accountants among other officers charged with timely implementation of the project.
The CC told the sensitization forum on CBC that 326 schools in the seven Sub-Counties of Kisumu East (24), Kisumu Central (27), Kisumu West (53), Nyando (54), Nyakach (72), Seme (44) and Muhoroni (52) were set to benefit.
This time round, County and Sub-County Information Officers have been included in the key committees charged with monitoring the progress of the schools infrastructural development. The contractors will be paid through M-pesa in two tranches, revealed Ouko.
Similarly, Chiefs have also been roped in to ensure the contractors stick to the set quality and standards. They are expected to file daily reports as the local artisans continue with the construction works.
Ouko said while the sub-counties remained the key implementing team for CBC infrastructural development programme, the county would be doing an oversight.
“Let us be diligent in our work so that by December 2021 or January 2022, we will have completed the work given to us by the Head of State. This can only be achieved through a sustained speed and endurance by the multi-sectoral outfit,” she said.
Kisumu County Director of Education, Isaac Atebe, revealed that 1.3 million Standard 6 and 8 candidates would take their final exam between November 2021 and March 2022 with almost a similar number in Form 4 writing their exams during the same period.
Atebe said a total of 11,600 classrooms would have been constructed with some schools set to have one contractor doing between 5-6 classrooms depending on the population of the school.
By Joseph Ouma
