Education CS Jacob Kaimenyi bows to pressure on new rules

Education Cabinet Secretary Jacob Kaimenyi on Monday caved in to pressure and called for talks over the new controversial regulations he gazetted recently.

This comes after an outcry, with education stakeholders accusing the minister of sidelining them in coming up with the rules.

Prof Kaimenyi called a three-day meeting with various stakeholders.

He met the first group on Monday. The group included Kenya Secondary School Heads Association Chairman John Awiti and some members, Kenya Private School Association Chief Executive Officer Peter Ndoro, and representatives of the Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims, and the Elimu Yetu Coalition.

The CS locked journalists out of the meeting, saying the stakeholders needed to talk freely. However, a source who attended the meeting said the stakeholders put Prof Kaimenyi on the spot and blamed him for the failures in the ministry.

“The CS is coming in late, when things have fallen apart. He has failed in the laptop project, which the President salvaged and moved to the ICT ministry. He is failing to control headteachers from charging high school fees arbitrarily, the transition rate from primary to secondary school is at a dismal low,” said the source.

DECISION WELCOME

Mr Awiti criticised the CS for gazetting the school fees after the schools had drawn their budgets.

Mr Ndoro said the decision by the minister to consult the private sector was welcome.

“We hope it is not a public relations stunt and that he is acting out his own volition to engage us,” said Mr Ndoro.

On Tuesday, Prof Kaimenyi is meeting officials of the Teachers Service Commission (TSC), the Kenya National Union of Teachers, and the Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers.

On Wednesday, he will meet representatives from public and private universities; the Kenya Universities and Colleges Placement Service; the Universities Academic Staff Union; and the Kenya Union of Domestic, Hotels, Educational Institutions, Hospitals and Allied Workers.

Acknowledging that there was a contentious part of the Basic Education Act (2014), Prof Kaimenyi said it was impossible for all the parties to agree.

“When we were deliberating on the basic regulations, there were dissenting voices here and there, but we cannot agree of all of us though we have to look at legitimate interests and expectations of the education stakeholders, and draw a conclusion,” said Prof Kaimenyi .

He was speaking during Monday’s meeting speaking at the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development in Nairobi.

Headteachers are accountable to the TSC but Prof Kaimenyi wants them to fall under him as accounting officers. The move has, however, been opposed by the TSC and teachers’ unions, saying it is unconstitutional.