• Machogu said the administration of Kenya Kwanza is committed to ensure that nothing is costly to parents because education is supposed to be free and compulsory.
• He pointed out that Kenyans are dealing with a lot from economic crisis to the impacts of Covid 19, to add onto them the costs of education.
Education Cabinet Secretary nominee Ezekiel Machogu has weighed in on the controversy generated about the Competency-Based Curriculum being costly to parents.
He said if appointed, he will ensure that the cost of basic education is affordable.
"Once I get recommendations of then a final report from the task force, this is one of the areas that we will be able to come up with such that it is manageable," he said.
Machogu was speaking when he appeared before the National Assembly Committee on Appointments on Friday.
He said the Kenya Kwanza administration is committed to ensure that nothing is costly to parents because education is supposed to be free and compulsory.
President William Ruto on September 30 appointed a 49-member task force to review the new curriculum.
It has six months to review the new system of instruction and advise on the way forward in its final report by February 29.
Machogu pointed out that Kenyans are dealing with a lot from economic crisis to the impact of Covid-19 to take on an extra burden of a costly education.
The nominee was responding to a question by the National Assembly Deputy Speaker Gladys Shollei on his plans to reduce the cost of the new system of education.
"There has been complaints across the country that it is very expensive and teachers were ill-prepared to roll out the CBC programme," she said.
"As a CS nominee or education, what are your thoughts about it, what strategies are you going to put in place to ensure quality education for our children?" she asked.
Machogu said it was not enough for teachers to go through a week's induction-course on the curriculum.
He said when the task force is done with its mandate, teachers will be retrained.
Machogu also said the Ministry of Education will give teachers a platform to share their views on the programme.
"We want to ensure that there is high quality because one other thing the task force has to look at is the assessment," he said.