Government invents new text book policy for Kenyan schools

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Education CS Fred Matiang'i has issued a notice to have one text book per subject in elementary, primary and secondary education.

Matiang’i, speaking during a briefing at the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) on Wednesday June 14, said the numerous textbooks are a means of fraud by unqualified publishers.

“Some subjects have up to six textbooks from different authors and collusion between publishers, books sellers and heads of schools is evident. We can no longer entrust supply of books to profiteers, dealers and marketers keen to siphon public funds,” said Matiang’i.

Kenya Booksellers Association (KBSA) chairman Josephine Omanwa on the other hand said they would issue a statement after getting the official communication on the book distribution policy

In an audit released last year, the Government was estimated to be losing up to Sh13 billion annually to book fraud.

According to the report, school heads across the country failed to verify the quality of books delivered, which had in turn given rise to powerful cartels

“The total amount of money given to schools annually towards purchase of books is about Sh18.5 billion but the actual amount of money used on books is only Sh5 billion,” says the report in brief.

Additionally, most schools were shown to have ignored procurement procedures when purchasing books and faulted Government's failure to step up inspection of schools to save the money.

Ministry of Education staff, Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) and Kenya Publishers Association (KPA) compiled the report.

Text Book policy

The Ministry of Education advocates that each primary school pupil gets about Sh761 per year towards books under the free primary education policy while another 2.3 million secondary school students receive Sh4,792 each yearly towards books purchase.

This translates to nearly Sh11 billion on text books under the subsidized education programme.

"Given that public schools make purchases of only Sh5 billion, the Government must be losing billions annually," reads the report.

Education CS Matiang’I has however instructed a re-look at the contents of the Orange Book to create a balance of the books used in schools.

The Orange Book

The Orange Book is the official reference point of all books that KICD has approved for use in schools.

All schools are advised to only buy books contained in the Orange Book. 

Edited by Atieno Mboya