Give Uhuru credit for gains made in education sector, says Magoha

Mirema School top pupil Joy Ngotho. She scored 410 out of the possible 500. [ Jenipher Wachie, Standard]

Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha used the release of Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) exam results yesterday to list President Uhuru Kenyatta’s milestones in the education sector.

According to Prof Magoha, key achievements that will define President Kenyatta’s legacy include restoring the integrity of national exams, introducing the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC), construction of classrooms, and providing scholarships to needy learners.

“I stand here today to release the KCPE examination, which is important in two ways. One, it is the last KCPE examination which is being released under the Jubilee administration of His Excellency President Uhuru Kenyatta, a regime that has seen a six-year run of the cleanest and flawless national examination campaigns that have restored the integrity and credibility of our national certification system,” said Prof Magoha.

The CS said Uhuru had successfully midwifed the transition from 8-4-4 to the CBC system of education. The pioneer pupils will join Grade Six next month and sit their first national assessment later this year. Prof Magoha said all curriculum materials for Grade Six have been prepared and distributed to schools.

Another milestone is the construction of 6,497 new classrooms at a cost of Sh5.1 billion to accommodate learners in the CBC pioneer class. An additional 3,503 classrooms will be constructed under phase two of the project.

“We hope to complete the construction of all 10,000 classrooms as directed by the President, by the time I leave office. All these preparations make me extremely comfortable that my successor will find a good script to follow in the CBC implementation.”

The CS touted reforms that he said had benefited the education sector. These include the formation of multi-sectoral examinations monitoring team to curb exams cheating, using storage containers to stop exam leakages, 100 per cent transition rate of learners to secondary schools, and progress at restoring the normal school calendar.

“No one can gainsay the fact that when the history of this country is written, President Kenyatta’s contribution to the education sector will comprise a myriad of chapters.”

Magoha said Uhuru had ‘put smiles on the faces of needy children’ by providing them with scholarships under the Elimu Scholarship Programme that has been running for the last two years.

The programme targets less fortunate children in informal settlements and semi-arid areas. So far 9,000 children who sat for KCPE in 2020 and 2021 have benefited from fully paid scholarships for four years.

“The beneficiaries of the scholarships could not have gone to the best national schools without the support of the Elimu scholarships,” said Magoha.