Call to speed up reforms in schools

All education reforms in the country must be speeded up, the Kenya National Parents and Teachers Association said yesterday. Chairman Nathan Baraza said Kenya’s education sector has been going at a slow pace since independence despite heavy investment of resources. “Education in our country has not gone at the pace that we desire because if it had gone at the desired speed that we need Kenya would be at par with tigers like Singapore and Malaysia,” said Baraza.

Baraza said a lot of human capital is needed to be able to implement the constitution and achieve the Vision 2030. He said the county system of governance that Kenya is heading into is needs a lot of professionals in all cadres. He expressed fears that some counties will be left behind in development due to lack of professionals. “We are saying as education stakeholders that the country must give priority to education,” Baraza said.

The chairman said parents feel shortchanged by the government after it announced that only 10,000 teachers will be employed. Baraza said the figure is paltry compared to the number of students there are in schools. He said at least 40,000 teachers should be employed at once. He said Education should be given enough funds to employ the teachers to avoid the 1:90 teacher student ratio that is currently experienced in the country. “We cannot talk of achieving the Millennium Development Goals if we have such a e teacher-student ration,” he said.

He said the government must also release the free day secondary school funds on time so that schools run without any disruption. He said the money is in the budget and there is no reason for its delay. “This issue of using pressure to get results is not necessary,” he said. He said teachers have problems in running schools due to lack of funds.