Dr. Ruto promises to overhaul education sector if elected President
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| UDA Presidential Candidate - William Ruto |
UDA presidential candidate Dr. William Ruto has promised ambitious education reforms that will see increased funding to the sector, employment of more teachers, construction of more learning institutions and a review of the curriculum, in the event he wins on August 9. Among the proposals includes, but not limited to :
1. Establishment of national education fund.
The establishment of a national education fund to mobilize
grants, bursaries and scholarships from private and public sponsors to cater
for non-tuition costs. Currently, parents meet the cost of transport, meals,
uniform and boarding fees under the Free Primary Education (FPE) and the Free
Day Secondary Education. Ruto has promised that his administration will work
towards strengthening day secondary schools to guarantee access to quality
education and reduce the cost of education.
2. Increased funding for the free basic education.
Further, he has promised to increase funding for the free basic education
programmes and allocate more funds to implement quality education. Currently,
Education gobbles up 25.9 per cent of the Budget, and in the 2022/23 financial
year, the sector was allocated Sh544.4 billion, the highest share of the Sh3.31
trillion.
3. Reviewing the CBC.
On CBC, Kenya Kwanza appears to have retracted its earlier plans to scrap the
system and revert to 8-4-4 and now promises further public engagements with a
view to reviewing the curriculum. The Competency-Based Curriculum is currently
in Grade Six with the pioneer candidates expected to sit the maiden Kenya
Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA) in October and transition to
Junior Secondary in January 2023. On
this, Kenya Kwanza proposes to introduce alternative class transition criteria
from the current knowledge-based academic progression system.
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4. Employment of 58,000 teachers annually.
Ruto's Education Charter also promises to bridge the 116,000 teacher deficit in
public schools within two financial years by employing 58,000 teachers annually
from the over 300,00 trained but unemployed teachers in the country. The
coalition intends to spend Sh25 billion annually on this venture besides
rolling out continued teacher training and recruitment.
5. Establish a public university in every county.
On higher education, Ruto proposes to establish a public university in every
county in tandem with the University Act (2012). The universities will be made
to focus on their comparative advantage in their training. For example, the
universities in Mombasa should have courses that focus on the blue economy
while those in Turkana will have mining and extractive courses.
6. A 100% transition to higher education institutions.
The coalition further proposes to increase the number of technical universities
from the current three to eight across the eight region. This is in a bid to
increase access and reduce the cost of university education and implement a 100
per cent transition to higher education institutions.
7. Support academic progression
The DP also intends to link TVETs to universities to develop a credit transfer
framework to support academic progression, increase capitation for both
university and TVET.
8. Restructure HELB to
offer interest-free loans.
Currently, the government sponsors university
education at Sh70,000 per student, Sh 30,000 for TVET students, while students
receive loans of between Sh37,000 and Sh60,000 annually. Those in TVETs
receive Sh26,000 in loans. The loans are paid immediately after graduating from college/university.
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9. Restructure of managements of universities.
Ruto also proposes the amendment of the Universities Act, 2012, to allow
transfer of managements of universities, including hiring from the public
service and put in place legislative, policy and budgetary measures to address
the current financial crunch in public universities.
10. Provision of free sanitary pads.
Further, there is a provision of free sanitary pads for primary and secondary
schoolgirls to ensure 100 per cent return-to-school policy for teen mothers.
10. Equip TVETS and Construct 250 additional vocational
training centres.
He also proposes to increase the number of vocational training centres,
technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions.
“Kenya Kwanza will allocate conditional grants to county
governments within its first one year to ensure that in addition to the
existing 1,200, we will construct 250 VTCs in wards that currently do not
have.”
Further, the DP promises in the Education Charter to fully
equip all the existing Tvets in 52 constituencies within the first two years
and ensure there is a national polytechnic in every county.
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