The Nairobi County has launched its Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) Infrastructure Development Programme with a plan to construct 250 classrooms at a cost of Sh197 million within the county for smooth transitioning of learners from primary to junior secondary schools in 2023.
The construction of the classrooms in 91 targeted schools is estimated to cost Sh788, 000 per unit.
The Nairobi Regional Commissioner, James Kianda, said a multi-agency team comprising of various ministries in the sub counties have been mandated to select contractors from the grassroots level in their areas of jurisdiction to undertake the constructions works.
Explaining that CBC Infrastructure Development is part of the Presidential stimulus project, Kianda said locals including the youth, artisans and those fabricating windows and other building materials in the sub counties should be given an opportunity to do the work.
The Regional Commissioner who was addressing Regional Education Officers, Deputy County Commissioners and Sub County Education Officers during the launch of the Competence Based Curriculum Infrastructural Development Programme at Ngara Girls High School, urged the multi-agency team to comply with the government’s directive of awarding the contracts to local contractors based in the sub counties, but those who can offer quality work.
“This Presidential Stimulus Package is set to benefit every citizen, particularly local bidders at grassroots levels who are keen on delivering on quality but have low charges,” he said.
“We want to give the locals in Nairobi the construction works so as to make them feel like the other contractors doing major works,” said Kianda, while urging the multi-agency team to work together to enable them deliver and safeguard the programme to completion.
At the same time, the Regional Commissioner announced that the contractors’ payment will be done directly through Mpesa accounts for transparency and told the multiagency team to ensure those selected for the job provide information of their bank accounts for assurance that they can secure 50 percent of the building materials.
“You should start communicating the information to the respective people who will be involved in the work. All the contractors and workers should be sourced from Nairobi but competitively,” he reiterated.
Kianda also emphasized on the need for openness on implementation and execution of the project, saying that the Sub County Education Officer and the Deputy County Commissioner are responsible for procuring contractors who will be evaluated before and after completion of the project.
“Let’s be committed to providing good services and ensuring quality standards in the nature of work done,” he said, adding that the government has put in place a lot of development projects in Nairobi County and country at large, among them health facilities, road construction and massive investments in education, where the state has mobilized children to enroll in schools, besides improving the standards of learning.
Challenging the Regional Education Officers to work with limited resources, Nairobi Regional Director of Education, Margaret Lesuuda, said that the CBC Infrastructure Development programme aims at decongesting learners’ population in schools.
Lesuuda congratulated the education officers for demonstrating team work and urged them to secure infrastructure equipment and personnel required for the implementation of the CBC infrastructure development programme with immediate effect to enable the project be completed as scheduled.
“Kindly move with speed in identifying contractors as the work schedule has already been developed and this programme is set to end in April 2022,” she said.
The Regional Education Officer further urged the supervision officers to work with available resources and take pride in the assignment to help the program succeed.
“School Administrators should help in identifying reliable sites for the construction of the classrooms,” she said.
Lesuuda asked Quality Assurance personnel to help fast track CBC Infrastructure programme projects within the regions and ensure policies on standards have been met.
In the meantime, various committees have already been put in place to oversee the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the programme for its success and completion at the stipulated time.
The Government has also established a budget line for the CBC Infrastructure Development and will involve qualified local contractors in the Builders Work Category at the Sub County level for the construction of CBC classrooms in Secondary Schools within the Sub-County.
By Moffin Opilio and Bernadette Khaduli
Ends/education/Gikundi/Ngatia
