Ministry of Education Cabinet Secretary, Prof. George Magoha commissioned Competence Based Curriculum (CBC) phase 2 construction of classrooms at St Johns Alupe Secondary school, Busiende Secondary, and Lwanya Girls Secondary school where he unveiled 2 classrooms in each school.
Speaking to the press at St. Johns Alupe, Magoha affirmed government commitment in ensuring success of the CBC urging those opposed to the curriculum to embrace it saying it’s the strategic model to the future of our education system.
“CBC aims at exposing learners to flexibility in exploring content at all angles where focus is around learners discovering their potentials early in life,” said Magoha.
According to CS Magoha, the ministry plans to construct a total of 10,000 classrooms by the end of July. So far, 6,495 have been completed. Over 3500 classrooms will be constructed in the second phase bringing the total number of CBC classrooms to 10,000.
“We can proudly say that we are at 95 percent in terms of commissioning of our phase one classes, of which the majority are already in use,” he added.
Magoha sounded a firm warning to contractors handling over 1000 SEQIP classrooms and laboratories to work within the time frame and deliver on time.
He further urged the officers in the ministry to fast-track payment of the contractors warning against manipulating the system and blocking payment of contractors who have completed building.
The CS encouraged primary schools to build laboratories and libraries to enable transition of junior secondary schools within the facilities. He lauded the efforts by private investors to build stand-alone junior secondary schools, the move that has been highly celebrated by the government.
“Junior secondary will be easier in over 2300 secondary schools that are adjusted to primary school or share compounds as they will be able to coexist saving on the infrastructure,” said Magoha.
He confirmed that the Government has released Sh3.2 billion to pay contractors who have completed work and hence there should be no bottlenecks in process.
St. Johns Alupe School Principal, Ojiambo William Olingo, lauded the efforts made by the government in provision of sustainable infrastructure that will enable the transition process.
“We thank the government for the 3 CBC classrooms and SEQIP laboratory. This intervention is timely due to the rising number of student intake and growing school population at large,” said Olingo.
The school project director, James Nyongesa Okwero assured that he will deliver in good time to enable the school make use of the facilities.
By Absalom Namwalo
