Students in secondary schools will now keep all textbooks issued to them from form one to four, the Ministry of Education has said.
“The ministry has ordered that students proceed to the next class with the textbooks they acquired in the last class and will be allocated new books for their new classes, and will return all books once they have completed their form four,” Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Association chairman Indimuli Kahi told the Star yesterday.
According to the ministry, this is to facilitate completion of syllabus in schools that could be lagging behind.
“The students will also be required to use the books as revision aids as they prepare for their national examinations, unlike before when they had to go back and borrow from those in lower forms,” Kahi said.
However, some principals have raised concern some of the books could be lost.
The teachers now want the supply of the books stopped and students allowed to use the previous supply with more funding set aside for laboratories, classes and dormitories.
The teachers said it did not make sense to issue students new book every year as they could use those supplied in the previous year.
This emerged during a closed door meeting for head teachers from various parts of the country in Nakuru over the weekend.
One of the principals who declined to be named said that books worth millions of shillings were going to waste due to the current crisis.
Statistics from the education ministry reveal that in the past one year, the government has supplied 32 million books for learners in secondary schools covering six core subjects.
These are Mathematics, English, Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Kiswahili.
One principal said some schools had resorted to using huge plastic water storage containers to store the books.
“In one school you will find each student with more than 12 pieces of books but the laboratories are ill equipped and the classes and dormitories are congested,” he said.
Former Secretary General of the National Parents Association in Nakuru county Eskimos Kobia said there was a major crisis in the education sector.
He said head teachers were on weekly basis collecting published books from education officers without knowledge of where to keep them.
“For years, students have relied on the books used by the predecessors and this has saved the cost of learning but in the current situation, it seems like some cartels are making millions through the supply of books,” he said.
Another teacher from Molo said the publisher of the books was the same, warning that some traders could be fleecing the government.
“We welcome the move by the government to supply learning materials to secondary schools but currently our stores are full with the books and we don’t know where to store them,” he said.
“In one school you will find each student with over 12 pieces of books but the laboratories are ill equipped and the classes and dormitories are congested.”
Last year, some school principals expressed their displeasure with the system, saying the distribution of textbooks by the Government has been a nightmare and has greatly affected teaching in schools.
The principals said some schools had received excess books, and others only a few or nothing at all. Teachers are also having difficulties in teaching Literature and Fasihi as not all students have the set books.