County Commissioners are set to be chairpersons of the County Educations Boards (CEBs), according to the Basic Education Bill, 2024 drafted by the Ministry of Education for legislation.
This will be a departure from the Basic Education Act, 2013, which is set to be repealed, which provides that the Cabinet Secretary appoints an educationist of at least five years standing, and based in the county.
The Bill, however, retains the County Director of Education or his or her representative as the Secretary to the County Education Board as in the current Basic Education Law.
The proposed changes were unveiled during the Stakeholders Forum on the Draft Sessional Paper and Bills to Implement the Recommendations of the Working Party at the Kenya Institute of Special Education(Kise).
Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu who presided over the occasion, said the changes follow recommendations by the Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms (PWPER), which was established to address the various challenges that had been observed across all levels of Kenya’s education system.
Machogu further assured the stakeholders that the government would restore the Sh22,244 capitation for the Free Days Secondary Education programme.
He said the reduced capitation to Sh17,000 was due to the restrictive fiscal space, noting that restoration of the Sh22,244 will help secondary schools to operate.
Changes in the Universities Bill, 2024 seek to bar Universities from offering diploma programmes.
Machogu said the Universities should restrict themselves to offering graduate and postgraduate programmes, and leave diploma and other certificate courses to middle-level colleges.
Among the public documents the Ministry of Education presented to stakeholders for discussion and comments included the Sessional Paper on a Policy Framework for Education Reforms in Kenya, 2024.
Machogu said the sessional paper will anchor all the recommendations in the Report and provide the vehicle through which the Report will be presented to Parliament for adoption.
The bills were The Technical and Vocational Education and Training Bill, 2024, The Kenya National Qualifications Framework (Amendment) Bill 2024, Tertiary Education Placement and Funding Bill, Kenya Literature Bureau (Amendment) Bill, 2024 and Kenya National Examinations Council (Amendment) Bill, 2024.
Others were the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (Amendment) Bill, 2024, the Basic Education Bill, 2024, the Education Appeals Tribunal Bill, 2024, the Basic Education Scholarships and Bursaries Bill, 2024, the Science Technology and Innovation (Amendment) Bill, 2024 and the Universities Bill, 2024.
The Stakeholders were drawn from teacher unions, faith-based organisations, Vice-chancellors of public Universities, members of civil society, senior education officials and all the Semi-Autonomous organisations in the education sector.
In attendance were the Principal Secretaries for the State Departments of Basic Education Belio Kipsang and Technical Vocational and Technical Training Esther Muoria and University Education and Research Beatrice Inyangala.
