Task Force’s Term Expires, Funding Shortage Hampers Education Review
By last week, the task force led by Prof. Raphael Munavu was making frantic efforts to have its term extended by at least one month while also seeking additional funding from the National Treasury.
The task force’s term expired on March 31 before it could compile the final report for submission to President William Ruto, leaving its mandate and work in limbo unless the Head of State extended it.
According to sources who spoke to People Daily, the task force had also run out of money to fund its operations, which were in their final stages.
While confirming the end of his team’s term yesterday, Munavu eased concerns that the task force’s operations would cease.
Munavu stated that they had already informed the authorities about the expiration of their term and expressed hope that appropriate measures were being taken to address the situation. Munavu declined to comment on the cash shortage.
According to sources who spoke to the People Daily, the task force has halted all activities. At the same time, it awaits approval from the Executive Office of the President and the National Treasury.
The task force ran out of money as its time expired as it was refining the final report for presentation to the President. The team had divided into subcommittees, with each subcommittee focusing on a specific topic to synthesize the public’s opinions.
The team was then scheduled to have a retreat this week to consolidate all of the recommendations made by the taskforce into a single presentation document.
“As we speak now, the work of PWPER has temporarily stopped as we wait for an extension and more money from the National Treasury,” a source told PD.
The task force examined all laws governing the basic education subsector and recommended their reevaluation to address redundancies, ambiguities, and deficiencies in linkages.
In its preliminary recommendations presented to the President around the same time last year, the school task force proposed that Junior Secondary Schools (JSS) be housed in primary schools rather than secondary schools, which was the previous position.
The Teachers Service Commission ((TSC) should be split into a separate body to serve as the teacher employer and a professional body to serve as the teachers’ regulator, it was also recommended.
The Ministry of Education was also given the authority to assume responsibility for national schools’ supervision, quality assurance, and standards.
On university education, the committee had recommended that students in public universities pay fees of Sh52,000 per semester, up from Sh16,000 at the moment.
Among the measures planned to revamp higher education institutions are:
– The elimination of unattractive courses.
– The closure of satellite campuses.
– The possibility of mergers.
– The rationalization of staff to reduce costs.
Reducing the number of government-sponsored students will also likely force families to dig deeper to send their children to college.
Placement in universities for the more than 173,000 qualified students in the 2022 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examination has been delayed while the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS) awaits clear instructions on funding and declared programs.
The task force also suggested that the government bail out the cash-strapped public universities, which have accumulated debts of over Sh56 billion.
The enormous debts universities owe to statutory bodies include deductions for PAYE, Pension, NHIF, and NSSF, among others.
The panel recommended that the President continue to be the appointing authority for vice-chancellors of public universities, but with input from the Cabinet Secretary for Education and the university’s Senate.
Additionally, it urges the government to increase the number of students enrolled in teacher preparation programs.
Currently, 14.7%, or 3,922 students, are enrolled in 34 institutions with a total student population of 26,650.
It was also suggested that the government establish institutes for Technical and Vocational Training nationwide to increase the available space for such programs.
According to the report, each county should have a National Polytechnic, each constituency should have a Technical Vocational College, and each ward should have a Vocational Training Centre.
Task Force’s Term Expires, Funding Shortage Hampers Education Review