Ruto's promise is good news to education sector

President William Ruto addresses the nation during the 59th Jamhuri Day celebrations at the Nyayo National Stadium on December 12, 2022. [Kelly Ayodi, Standard]

In his New Year message to Kenyans, President William Ruto had a word for our education sector, which could not have come at a better time given the anxiety among stakeholders.

Later this month, it is expected that some 1.2 million pupils will join junior secondary school under the Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) even as the academic calendar - which was heavily disrupted by Covid-19 pandemic in the past two years - normalises.

There has been palpable anxiety among parents, teachers and even learners on how well the Government is prepared for the transition to the CBC programme that replaced 8-4-4, and which so far boasts of an enrolment of close to 10 million children.

The President's reassurance of a smooth changeover, therefore, will help calm nerves. It is heartening that the Head of State also took the opportunity to restate the government's commitment to facilitate learning, through the provision of adequate human and capital resources, including the hiring of 30,000 more teachers for Primary and Junior Secondary, and provision of more classrooms.

However, the Government must move with speed and to spell out the nitty-gritties of every phase of the transition, complete with precise guidelines including the training of teachers in the new dispensation, even as Kenyans await the release of Grade Six results.

President Ruto also addressed what ails our tertiary education. It is a fact that most of the country's public universities are broke and cannot meet the most basic financial obligations. Indeed, documents tabled in Parliament last year by the then University Education PS Simon Nabukwesi revealed the shocking state of affairs as regards the sustained underfunding of the country's top academic institutions, something that calls for urgent remedy.

Last year Moi and Egerton universities had each accrued more than Sh5 billion in debt. Kenyatta University owed Kenya Revenue Authority and suppliers more than Sh5.6 billion.

This financial crisis in our citadels of learning has been occasioned by huge funding gaps running into billions of shillings. For instance, in the 2021-22 financial year, universities required Sh149 billion but were only allocated Sh95 billion (inclusive of Sh4.3 billion in infrastructure funds). In 2022-23, the gap rose up to Sh74 billion, throwing the institutions into financial mess.

While acknowledging the challenges in the public universities, the president promised to deal with the challenges in a more wholesome manner through a task force with sweeping mandate. The aim is help get the institutions back on their feet to continue offering quality courses and produce qualified graduates to meet the country's present and future manpower needs.

From past experience, the diagnosis of what ails our country has never been the problem. The issue has always boiled down to implementation. It is therefore our expectation that the Ministry of Education, through the Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu, will do what is needed.