A Sh8.8 billion project that has helped boost national examinations scores for 4,000 schools will come under scrutiny as key donors and top government officials hold talks in Nairobi this week.
More than 150 technical education experts, including 10 Education ministers from Africa, are expected to meet in Nairobi to discuss the performance of donor funded projects in the education sector worth Sh30 billion in Kenya.
Under the auspices of the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), technical experts will meet starting Wednesday ahead of the agency’s board meeting next week.
Basic Education Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang is set to open the technical experts meeting in Gigiri, Nairobi, while Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha will open the GPE board meeting on Monday next week.
Documents seen by the Sunday Standard show that the meeting will assess the progress in improving the quality of learning and management in 4,000 schools that were put under a five-year School Improvement Plan through the GPE-funded Primary Education Development (Priede) Project.
The 4,000 schools were those that posted a mean mark 243 and below in KCPE examination results.
The half-mark mean score in the KCPE is 250 marks out of the maximum possible 500.
The aim was to ensure the schools are assisted to improve quality of learning to ensure they raise their mean performance.
A ministry report released in May showed that the majority of schools put under the programme registered remarkable improvement in 2018. The schools also improved in management and accountability practices.
It said majority of the schools had surpassed the 250 mean average mark in the KCPE, up from 243 average marks.
Under Priede programme, more than 90,000 primary school teachers were trained to raise standards of learning and teaching in primary schools.
The majority of these were trained in early grade mathematics, a component of the Sh8.8 billion GPE-funded project under the supervision of the World Bank.
Although the project was set to end this year, it is understood the World Bank is planning to extend it owing to the success in lifting standards of learning in Kenya.
“We are determined to help low performing schools to improve their academic and management performance,” Ministry of Education Director of Projects Elijah Mungai said.
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