As schools approach reopening at the end of this month for the first full year under President William Ruto’s administration, focus has been emphasised on the implementation of ambitious education reforms which is estimated to cost at least Sh630 billion over five years.
The government is under pressure to provide the required resources to expand both the primary and secondary education infrastructure to accommodate the 1,282,597 pioneer Grade six learners who sat their Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA) last year and the 1,244,188 pupils who sat their Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE).
This includes the construction of classes, laboratories, libraries and hiring of teachers among others.
Ahead of the 2022 general elections, Ruto pledged radical reforms to revolutionise the education sector if he secured victory in the August 9 general polls.
In his Kenya Kwanza manifesto, Ruto acknowledged that education is a key driver for socio-economic development and made pledges to improve the sector.
“The bottom up economic transformation agenda is conscious of education as the ultimate means of ensuring an equitable society. It ensures that every child has a chance to fulfil their potential and rise to the highest level of accomplishment irrespective of social background,” the Kenya Kwanza manifesto reads.
President Ruto’s main task is to ensure a 100 percent transition of the Grade six learners whose results are due later this month and are expected to join junior high.
The current administration directed that Junior High Schools be domiciled in primary schools and ordered the construction of an extra classroom and laboratory in every primary school as measures to ensure that schools are well equipped to handle the anticipated increased number of learners.
The President said that primary schools neighbouring secondary schools will share laboratories and other facilities with the JSS.
The government plans to spend Sh800,000 to build two classrooms and Sh4.5 million to construct an omnibus laboratory in each school.
The government committed to recruit extra teachers for secondary and primary schools to address the current shortage in the sector that stands at 116,000. This is estimated to cost at least Sh238billion over the next five years.
It will cost Sh40million to construct 52 teachers training institutions within two years with the school feeding programme needing an additional Sh1.9billion to double the number of beneficiaries from two million to four million.
The Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) estimates that a total of 70,000 in service teachers will be trained on an annual basis at a cost of Sh6,000 per teacher.
An estimated annual recruitment of 20,000 primary school teachers and 38,000 secondary school teachers will be undertaken with an average annual cost of maintaining a primary school teacher at Sh300,000 and that of a secondary school teacher at Sh480,000.
Plans to review the current exam based system of academic progression by implementing alternative entry criteria and setting up a national open university to increase access and reduce the cost of university education while making 100 percent transition to higher education by the government is also underway.