Ruto vows to put up more schools, end congestion

President William Ruto in a past event. [Denish Ochieng, Standard]

President William Ruto has said the Government will construct more classrooms to boost education.

Speaking while officially opening Komarock South Primary School in Nairobi yesterday, the President noted that most private and public schools are congested with fewer classes accommodating a large number of pupils. Ruto wondered why primary schools are more than secondary schools yet the pupils are all expected to transition to the secondary level.

"How can we have 260 primary schools and only 100 secondary?" He posed.

Nairobi has 286 public schools, out of which 205 are primary institutions and 81 are secondary schools.

The president said his government will not relent in expanding the existing infrastructure and building new schools across the country to fill the gap. He disclosed that he is in talks with Nairobi Governor Johnstone Sakaja to look for land where more schools will be built.

"We must get additional pieces of land where we can build schools for our children and I have deliberately come to open this school because I want our leaders in Nairobi to know that we have thousands of our children who are not going to school in Nairobi," he said.

"Part of this problem is because we do not have enough schools and that must be sorted," he added.

Ruto took the opportunity to ask MPs in Nairobi to join hands and ensure each constituency builds five additional schools.

"I have already instructed the Lands Cabinet Secretary and Principal Secretary to start looking for suitable land where together with our MPS we will construct schools,'' he said.

In his manifesto, Ruto had promising ambitious education reforms that included increasing funding to the sector