Govt issues 2.3m maths textbooks for pupils

The government has distributed 2,337,474 million mathematics textbooks to benefit more than six million primary school-going children.

Principal Secretary for Education Belio Kipsang said more than 20,000 schools will benefit from the materials.

The books are meant to improve the teaching and learning of mathematics in Class One and Class Two in all public primary and informal schools in the country.

Dr Kipsang was speaking during the Kenya Primary Education Development Project (PRIEDE) joint implementation support mission meeting at Jogoo House.

The textbooks were disbursed under the supports of Global Partnership for Education (GPE), which gave Kenya a grant of US$88.4 million to improve the teaching and learning of mathematics in early grade years.

The project is being implemented under the supervision of the World Bank.

Its main principle lies in the early mastery of numeracy skills as the basis of quality education.

It is meant to develop the foundation for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) in later years of schooling.

Wenna Price, an education specialist from Washington who is also part of the GPE team, said they will tour 25 primary schools and two teacher training colleges to assess the status of the implementation of the project.

Some 40,000 teachers will also be trained on new methodologies on early grade mathematics through improved in-service training and regular pedagogical supervision and support.

The project will last until 2019 and will see teachers, head teachers and school boards receive guidance and support to improve school performance. They will also be issued with improved teaching and learning inputs.