Education CS George Magoha has urged his counterparts at the county level to take personal initiative to ensure the new curriculum books reach each learner.
Addressing a national and county government consultative meeting on curriculum reforms on Friday, the CS said the majority of ECDE schools at the counties have received the books. He said others are yet to receive the learning materials hence undercutting the momentum of implementing the new curriculum.
"This is the weak link in the ongoing reforms," Magoha told the meeting attended by county education ministers.
To cure this weak link, the CS said, the CECs should "take personal initiative in monitoring every decision, including distribution of the books to ensure success."
"Do not trust anybody, including your personal aides. When they tell you they have taken books to the children, drive to those schools silently and find out for yourselves," he said.
The CS said blindly accepting reports by officers has led to massive loss of public resources at the expense of learners.
"Sometimes you get reports which are different from what is happening at the ground," Magoha said, telling the officials to "get out of your big offices and go to the field".
Praising the new curriculum rollout as seamless, the Cabinet secretary reported that in most counties, the ECD sections have blended well with Grades 1,2 and 3, attributing this to "the united front the ministry has adopted in managing the education sector".
"We are delivering as one government headed by President Uhuru Kenyatta, not as different ones. He is the master strategist and all of us are his tacticians, " he said.
The minister said opposition of the new curriculum by the civil society is a doomed voyage, calling it a ripe time to reform the country's education system.
"There are many people in the streets talking a lot of rubbish without facts as they oppose the progress," he said, referring to persistent call by civil society groups to have the rollout of the new curriculum stopped.
"Why do you want our children to be taught using obsolete materials in a rapidly dynamic world?" he asked.
His hard stance against the dissent by civil society voices came barely hours after meeting members of the group at Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development on Friday morning in an attempt to assuage their suspicions about the programme.
Edited by R.Wamochie
