- Sourcing for seedlings however remains a tall order for most school heads
- Education officials instructed schools to acquire tree seedlings before Friday
Bid to grow 15 billion trees in the next 10 years has been met by resistance from head teachers over lack of resources.
Head teachers from Western are accusing the state of failing to provide tree seedlings.
“We are supposed to meet for the exercise but we do not have a budget,” one of the head teachers said.
The school head requested anonymity for fear of reprisal from his superiors.
Yesterday, school heads from Western, were expected to attend a mandatory online meeting for tree planting.
Under the drive, each student is supposed to plant three trees by Friday.
School heads are required to log in to their National Education Management Information System Elimu Tree Planting platform using their school Nemis username and password.
They are then expected to upload the data on the number of trees planted by their schools.
Instructions from the education ministry say all heads of private and public primary and secondary schools are required to fully participate.
Sourcing for seedlings however remains a tall order for most school heads.
Education officials instructed schools to acquire tree seedlings before Friday.
Head teachers were urged to approach community based organisations, sponsors and well-wishers for seedlings.
“The tree planting exercise should not only take place within the school but as the community as well. Kindly purpose to 100 per cent attend the online meeting and take note that tree planting exercise is a presidential directive,” part of the directive seen by the Star says.
During the meeting, Environment and Education ministries will jointly integrate the Jaza Miti app with the Elimu app to enhance the recording and reporting of tree-growing activities by learning institutions.
On Tuesday, acting Conservation secretary George Tarus urged school heads to work closely with their respective ministries.
“They should work with the Cabinet Secretaries and Principal Secretaries of the respective ministries,” he said.
On April 2, Environment CS Soipan Tuya and Education CS Ezekiel Machogu co-chaired an inter-ministerial meeting on how to collaborate to plant 15 billion trees.
The Ministry of Education was identified as one of the key drivers of the 15 billion tree-growing programmes.
This follows its 17 million learners and 600,000 educators.
Basic Education Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang said the Environment Ministry will ensure timely provision of 15,000 kg of tree seedlings annually.
This will enable the Education Ministry to meet its seedling production target of 300 million per year.
The Environment Ministry, through the Kenya Forest Service and the Kenya Forestry Research Institute, will provide Education Ministry with technical support on seedling production and tree growing, including site-species matching.
The two ministries will then jointly come up with a coordination framework to cover county and subcounty levels.
They also agreed to jointly develop an award scheme for recognising the best-performing educational institutions.
The 15 billion tree planting programme is a government climate action initiative anchored in the 10-year National Landscape and Ecosystem Restoration Strategy.
The programme seeks to raise Kenya’s tree cover by 30 per cent by the year 2032.
In total, the government seeks to restore 10.6 million hectares of degraded ecosystems and landscapes across 11 intervention areas.
Kipsang said the programme has made tremendous progress since its launch slightly more than a year ago.
He said some of the progress made include the development of the National Landscape and Ecosystem Restoration Strategy 2023-32; construction of 11 new seed centres to increase access to high quality tree seeds and the distribution of 100 tonnes of seeds.
Other strides include the establishment of the 15 billion tree planting campaign and restoration secretariat anchored at the State Department of Forestry; development of Forest Adoption and Tree Growing Incentive Frameworks; and overseeing the growing of 300 million seedlings as recorded on Jaza Miti application.
The two ministries will also jointly design communication and awareness creation campaigns.
Kipsang said the climax of the programme last year was the National Tree Growing Day, Kenya’s first green holiday, on November 13 last year.
On this day, a record 150 million trees were planted in one day.
Tuya, on her part, said the ministry has set targets for each ministry, department and agency on how much they will contribute. She said the Education Ministry has numbers and networks across the country.
“My ministry has been engaged in setting the stage for where each MDA (ministries, departments and agencies) will plug into and take their target.”
During the event, Machogu promised to help mobilise resources towards tree growing initiatives.