Ruto: Education reforms to produce skilled staff

President William Ruto has lauded the strides achieved under his administration in the education sector, including the employment of a record 56,750 new teachers.

The president said another 8,200 primary school teachers have been retrained to enable them to handle junior school learners.

He spoke during the State of the Nation Address at the National Assembly.

Ruto lauded education reforms under his administration, saying they are necessary for creating highly skilled and competitive human capital.

Under the Competency Based Curriculum (CBC), Ruto praised the Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms for ‘settling the puzzle’ on the transition from primary to junior school.

The team recommended that the junior school be retained in primary schools, a departure from an earlier proposal that sought to have them domiciled in secondary schools.

Currently, the first cohort of junior school learners is in Grade 7. Ruto also lauded the changes in the transition of learners from primary to junior school under CBC, which saw a departure from the previous 8-4-4 education system that used examinations as a transition marker.

However, under the new curriculum, the transition is automatic and does not need any examination to determine where a student proceeds to secondary school.

“The Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA) will be used to monitor learners’ progress and not for placement in any grade,” he said.

With changes to the teacher training colleges, the president said admission has gone up 300 per cent. The colleges now have an enrollment of 20,456 trainees.

At the tertiary level, Dr Ruto said the overhaul of the funding model that adopted the loans and scholarship model will help disadvantaged Kenyans from poor backgrounds who had a problem accessing tertiary education.

He said the previous funding model had resulted in challenges that saw the institutions sink to a Sh60 billion debt by the end of 2022.