The Ministry of Education has drafted the Basic Education Bill, 2024, for legislation making County Commissioners chairpersons of the County Education Boards (CEBs).
Education Cabinet Secretary (CS) Ezekiel Machogu said this will be a departure from the Basic Education Act, 2013, which is set to be repealed, that provides that the CS appoints an educationist of at least five years standing and based in the country.
In a press statement sent to newsrooms, he said the Bill would retain the County Director of Education or their 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.
Further, he said the changes followed recommendations by the Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms (PWPER), which was established to address the various challenges observed across all levels of Kenya’s education system.
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The CS assured the stakeholders that the government would restore the Kes 22, 244 capitations for the Free Days Secondary Education programme.
“The reduced capitation to Kes 17,000 was due to the restrictive fiscal space. The restoration of the Kes 22, 244 will help secondary schools to operate.”
The Universities Bill, 2024 amendments aim to prevent universities from providing diploma programs.
According to Machogu, universities must limit their offerings to graduate and postgraduate programs, leaving diploma and other certificate programs to be offered by middle-tier colleges.
Sessional Paper on a Policy Framework for Education Reforms in Kenya, 2024 was one of the public publications the Ministry of Education circulated to stakeholders for discussion and feedback.
“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,” he added.
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.
