Public schools to get Grade One books by January 15, pledges CS Amina

Education CS Amina Mohamed flags off a lorry carrying new curriculum text books for Grade One yesterday. [Beverlyne Musili, Standard]

Some three million new curriculum textbooks for Grade One will be dispatched to public schools in the next seven days, the Ministry of Education has said.

 Speaking before flagging off 10 trucks loaded with 250,000 books destined for Kakamega, Bungoma and Turkana counties yesterday, Education Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed said the Tusome textbooks will ensure smooth implementation of the plan that begun on January 3 in PP1, PP2 and grades 1-3.

The CS said 20 trucks carrying 566,000 textbooks had been dispatched to various counties.

“The ministry has the responsibility of confirming that the important infrastructure, both soft and hard, are in place on time,” she said at the Kenya Literature Bureau (KLB).

She explained that publishers, in consultation with the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development, were working to have course books and other instructional materials published and successfully distributed to all public primary schools by January 15.

The Government plans to distribute 3,060,000 Grade One books to public primary schools by January 15 as it rolls out the new competence-based curriculum in the Early Years Education programme.

The textbooks include 1.5 million Tusome English Grade 1 course books, 1.5 million Tusome Kiswahili Grade 1 course books, 30,000 Tusome English teacher’s guides and 30,000 Tusome Kiswahili teacher’s guides, printed and distributed by KLB. 

After flagging off the books, the CS visited State House Girls High School to inspect the Form One admission process using the newly-introduced National Education Management Information System.

Amina went through the process of admitting a new student, Serah Wambui Njogu.

“This is a rare opportunity. I did not expect to be served by the minister,” said Serah, who was accompanied by her mother.