Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu has called on Teachers and Parents to accept the performance of their children’s results that were released on Friday, reiterating that every child did their best in the exams thus no student should be discriminated based on the results.
Speaking in West Pokot County during the launch of a modern school tuition block worth Sh82.7 million at Tartar Girls’ High School, Machogu emphasized that no student failed the just released Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) because they have a chance to enroll in any institution based on their performance.
“I want to ask all parents to consider enrolling their children for tertiary training even if they did not attain the minimum university entry grade. No child should be discriminated against since the government has invested heavily on post-secondary education through the leadership of President Dr. William Ruto to cater for all the candidates’ needs who sat for their KCSE exams,” stated the CS.
He called on school heads to use available resources provided by the government to ensure that all students are served in equal measures for their future benefit.
Machogu said the Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) will be a success since the government will allocate Sh15,000 per child at the junior secondary level and appealed to the local leaderships to support the government through using the Constituency Development Funds (CDF) to help in construction of classrooms and laboratories.
He added that the government will complete the construction of new Junior Secondary Schools classrooms on time. “We will ensure that all the classrooms that the government proposed are completed on time and no money that belongs to the government goes to waste,” he said.
Machogu said that unlike initially when every child was entitled to only Sh1,000, the figure has been up scaled Sh15,000 and 25 percent of the amount will be meant for infrastructure development in the schools.
He asked School Management Boards to make good use of the funds for effective implementation of CBC promising that the government will ensure that the capitation for schools is released on time.
He added that the government in collaboration with other stakeholders will build 7,000 laboratories in schools across the country.
On employment of teachers, the CS said out of the 30,000 teachers being recruited by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC), West Pokot County has its fair share of the teachers and the government is steadfast in ensuring marginal areas are not deprived off their education rights.
“West Pokot County which has a teacher shortage of about 1,000 is privileged to have 687 new teachers for primary and 184 for secondary schools,” he disclosed, adding that the government is doing its best to ensure that all schools have enough teachers for effective learning.
Machogu appealed to West Pokot leaders to ensure the local people embrace peace especially along the county borders as schools re-open next week.
Tartar Girls’ High school which is a national school in the county is set to receive good tidings following the completion of the tuition block with the school management hailing the move by the government to sponsor the mega project.
School Principal Ms. Catherine Tum said the school had been experiencing strain owing to the increasing number of students since being elevated into a national school.
“We currently have 1,600 students with only 74 teachers among them 11 employed by Board of Management (BOM). Most of our structures need face-lifting and expansion to help provide a more conducive learning environment,” said the principal.
Source: Kenya News Agency