Letters

Seal loopholes to make education changes benefit students, parents

studs

Primary school pupils. FILE PHOTO | NMG

Of late there have been a number of changes in the education sector, the most recent being smooth transition from primary to secondary school.

This effectively means that secondary education is basic, similar to primary and early childhood development education. To ensure equity, textbooks will henceforth — albeit for maths, languages and sciences — be handled by the government and publishers; not independent suppliers.

Getting rid of cartels will ensure savings for the government. Also, to ensure that no student misses school due to illness each will be covered under the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF).

The changes also take the burden of buying sports kits and funding games events off parents’ shoulders.

An upsurge in secondary school enrolment left them congested and students sharing limited facilities.

Even schools which received government funds to expand infrastructure were restricted in use and scope to an extent that some priorities were set aside. One would thus be left wondering whether the touted changes have been more of public relations than revamping the quality of education. First, the books supplied by the government have had issues to do with content and relevance. Some have had glaring errors. Teachers have also raised issues with content versus the objectives spelt out in the syllabus.

Secondly, still on textbooks, one is left wondering whether the subjects left out of the free textbook programme are not important to the curriculum; and if only one textbook per subject is a sufficient point of reference for both teachers and students.

You may also need to look at how much money was allocated for the textbooks programme and arising expectations. So far, the government has set aside about Sh5,500 for every learner.

If each book costs Sh700, the total for six books per learner will come to Sh4,200, saving Sh1,300. This amount is enough for booksellers and distributors to pay staff, pay tax to the government, improve content quality and live on. This system could have limited wastage.

Third, medical cover for learners was supposed to be paid for by savings from the textbook programme. However, money for the same has been deducted from the allocation for free education. Each secondary school student will have a medical cover of up to Sh1,350; way above what I pay for my father and mother’s cover together with my siblings below the age of 18 years.

Also, some of the students are already covered by medical insurance held by their parents. Then comes the issue of accredited facilities to offer health services.

Some are tens of kilometres away from schools hence the institutions will have to transport learners there whenever they fall sick.

Fourth, the government said it would finance co-curricula activities and save parents the burden. Unfortunately, schools still foot the bills of these activities and promptly pass the burden over to parents.

Finally, as schools open for term two the media is awash with news of the government releasing funds to schools.

However, there is barely any money in the tuition accounts of schools even as traders who had supplied exercise books and other stationery queue for pay.

Often, schools pay for more urgent needs at the expense of suppliers. The principals then ponder on how to get the next supply of stationery now that their creditors are unhappy and unwilling to extend more credit.

It’s imperative that the government rethinks its plan for our children’s education and follows up with sound implementation policies and practice.

Tasma Saka, Homa Bay