The government has set aside Sh3.39 billion for building 9,000 junior secondary school classrooms in all 290 constituencies, Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu has said.
Mr Machogu said the money will be shared out to all Members of Parliament who will be expected to match the amounts from their CDF kitties to have the classrooms built by the end of the year in time for the first cohort of Grade 9 in the CBC curriculum next year.
He said additionally, the national government will find money to build another 6,000 classrooms to bring the total to 15,000.
Machogu was speaking at Kangaru School in Embu, where he graced the Gala Phase of the 62nd Edition of the Kenya National Drama and Film Festival.
Some 23,000 students from preprimary schools, primary schools, junior secondary, high schools and colleges presented various artistic pieces that included mimes, comedies, solo and group cultural and modern dances, narratives and plays. There were also documentary and feature films presented as well as advertisement creatives.
Junior secondary students participated in the festivals for the first time this year, boosting the number of participants from the 15,000 who took part last year.
Machogu said with performing arts being one of the pathways in the CBC curriculum they are encouraging all the junior schools to come on board.
The CS said they are talking to their partners in the East African Community with a view to having a regional arts festival the way the East African community countries have embraced competitions in athletics and ball games to enhance cultural integration.
The chair of the festival, Prof Christopher J. Odhiambo, said they have enhanced the training of drama teachers from all regions in order to improve the quality of productions and ensure equity.
The Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) CEO Prof Charles Ong’ondo said for the second year running his institute had been able to air the entire festival on the institute’s Edu Channel.
He added that KICD had also uploaded content recorded at last year’s festival on various social media platforms and that it had generated some 10,000 euros from views and urged Kenyans to look out for the festival content as the more they view it, the more money it will bring the country.
By Steve Gatheru
