Education CS Kaimenyi rules out special exams for North Eastern

Education cabinet secretary Prof. Jacob Kaimenyi addressing the press during a consultative meeting on how to enhance and strengthen engagement between Ministry of Education, Science and Technology PHOTO: Jenipher Wachie

Nairobi, Kenya: Education Cabinet Secretary Jacob Kaimenyi has said there are no plans to administer special examinations for students in the North Eastern region, where schools have been closed as a result of terror attacks.

Addressing senators at Parliament buildings, Prof Kaimenyi said while the rest of the country was already doing their examinations, especially the Form Four projects in Agriculture and Woodwork, the candidates in the region had already been left behind, and was unlikely to catch up in the current year.

"The issue of special exams for these regions will not be explored at the moment," he told the Senate Committee on Education, Information and Technology.

Kaimenyi said: "One of the best solutions is for students to sit exams next year and not now," the CS told the senators at the meeting that was also attended by his Interior counterpart Joseph Nkaissery.

The affected counties are Wajir, Garissa and Mandera, which have all borne the brunt of the Somalia-based militants.

The teachers' employer, Teachers Service Commission (TSC), has been in a dilemma about sending staff to the insecure region where 28 of their colleagues were pulled from a bus and shot dead in cold blood in 2014. "It is a complex matter and we can't force teachers back," Kaimenyi added.

He said the sporadic attacks from Al Shabaab in Mandera and Lamu counties had dimmed the hopes of the TSC, the ministry and the teachers to resume learning in the volatile region.

"The issue of stating the specific timelines for the learning institutions to return to normalcy in Northern Kenya therefore remains a big challenge," he said.

Kaimenyi told the committee, chaired by Daniel Karaba (Kirinyaga), that in Garissa County 16 schools had been closed while 52 were operating with less than two teachers. In Wajir, secondary and primary schools have a shortage of 918 teachers.

"The number of teachers who left the county in both primary and secondary schools since January this year was 463," Kaimenyi said in the brief he tabled before the senators.

In Mandera, 775 teachers have been absent, with Mandera East constituency being the hardest hit, after 243 teachers bolted out of the region. Mandera Central lost 197 teachers, Mandera North 132 while Lafey lost 50.

Nkaissery said, and Kaimenyi agreed, that no schools were closed in Mandera over insecurity. "Most teachers employed by the TSC and deployed to the area left the county citing insecurity," said Nkaissery.

Schools have been forced to set aside money to pay non-government teachers.

Nkaissery said for now the Government was willing to send police officers to beef up security in schools upon request. He said there were increased patrols on the Kenya-Somali border and the towns in the region, aside from having all the staff and students have badges and IDs for easy identification by the authorities.

"Plans are underway to establish police posts in institutions with a high number of students," said Nkaissery.

Kaimenyi said: "Heads of learning institutions have been advised to, where necessary, purchase security equipment such as CCTV cameras."