CS Machogu Warns School Administrators to Ensure Food and Water Safety.
The Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu has warned school administrators to ensure the safety of food and water consumed by students.
This follows the recent outbreak of diseases in some schools last term, which resulted in the death of three students and a teacher at Sacred Heart Mukumu Girls High School.
The Ministry of Health linked the infection to Enterotoxigeic E coli and Salmonella Typhi after tests on samples were conducted by the Kenya Medical Research Institute.
Education officials have called for the food and water consumed by students to be inspected regularly by experts to ensure that it is fit for human consumption. The Ministry of Education is expected to issue a circular to schools on water and food safety to give guidelines for the same.
The second school term is about to begin, and millions of learners in primary and secondary schools will be opening from tomorrow. This term runs for 14 weeks up to August 11, 2023.
Learners are returning to school against a background of issues affecting the basic education sector. One of these issues is an increase in reported cases of corporal punishment.
Machogu has put on notice teachers who still physically assault students, saying that some learners have ended up with serious injuries.
Moreover, many households are struggling with the weight of a depressed economy, which has seen the cost of living shoot through the roof. School heads will also have to grapple with the rising prices of foodstuffs, electricity, and other running costs.
Many parents also owe schools millions of shillings in unpaid fees. The lack of adequate funding has a direct effect on the quality of teaching since this money is meant for tuition.
The Kenya Secondary School Heads Association presented a memorandum to the Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms requesting the capitation to be raised to at least Sh30,000 per learner.
For junior secondary school, the government has set a capitation of Sh15,042 per learner to cater to capacity building, textbooks, laboratory materials, stationery, among other materials.
Although the funds are managed by primary school heads where JSS is domiciled, they are not to be used to meet primary school needs.
The Kenya Primary School Heads Teachers Association Rift Valley Region Chairman Patrick Kitur called on the government to release capitation funds ahead of the reopening of the institutions.
“We expect all learners to report back next week for the beginning of the second term. For now, insecurity is not a major challenge with the security operation still ongoing in the volatile areas,” said Kitur.
Candidate classes will also be involved in mock examinations as they prepare for the national examinations at the end of the year.
The learners in Standard Eight will be the last group to sit the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education, which was first done in 1985. It has been replaced by formative assessment under the Competence-Based Curriculum.
During the term, there will be various school-based assessments administered by the Kenya National Examinations Council for learners in Grade 3, 4, 5, and 6.
It is widely expected that the Teachers Service Commission will announce the recruitment of more teachers as promised by the Kenya Kwanza regime to bridge the 116,000 shortage. So far, 30…
CS Machogu Warns School Administrators to Ensure Food and Water Safety.
