Mutula calls for views on draft education Bills

By Rawlings Otieno
Education Minister Mutula Kilonzo has called on all stakeholders to give their views on four key draft Bills the ministry has developed to reform the education sector.

Mutula said the Teachers Service Commission Bill, Kenya National Examinations Council Bill, Education Bill, Kenya Institute of Education Bill and the draft Sessional Paper on Education were in the pipeline.

“The ministry is finalising these four Bills and we need all the stakeholders to add content and make recommendations before they are presented to Parliament for debate,” said Mutula.
memo
The minister was speaking at the ministry offices on Monday when he met the Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) executive committee led by their chairman Omboko Milemba.
He challenged teachers’ representative organisations and other stakeholders in the education sector to study the Bills, which are available on the ministry website, and provide input to enable him push them onto the floor of the House before August.
Kuppet had earlier sent a memo to the minister touching on various issues that concern teachers.
The union wants representation in the county and national education boards and in teacher disciplinary committees of the TSC.
It has called for the creation of a teachers’ appeals tribunal and for consultations as the TSC develops the code of conduct for teachers.
allowances
Kuppet has also appealed to the Government to harmonise house and commuter allowances for teachers with those of the rest of the civil service. It had raised concern at the intended increments in NHIF deductions for teachers given the charges of financial impropriety leveled against the management board.

At the same time, the Education ministry will today launch the sanitary pads provision programme targeting schools from more than 80 districts across the country at the Kenya Institute of Education (KIE).
sanitary pads

The programme is funded by the Government at a cost of Sh241 million and will cater for the provision of sanitary pads to 443,858 girls between Class Four and Eight in the next two terms.

The ministry estimates that about 2.2 million girls from primary schools and 400,000 secondary school girls require to be supported with sanitary towels.

It has identified amongst this number, 300,000 girls who require to be supported further with the provision of underwear to make their school lives bearable.