Nyeri Diocese Catholic Archbishop Anthony Muheria has expressed deep concern over the state of Kenya’s education system.
Muheria warned that poor implementation of Competency-Based Education (CBE) risks compromising the future of an entire generation of learners.
Speaking at Our Lady of Consolata Cathedral in Nyeri town on Sunday, the Archbishop cited a series of systemic challenges that continue to undermine the effective rollout of the nine-year-old education system, particularly at the Senior School level.
Archbishop Muheria pointed to the recent confusion surrounding the placement of Grade 10 learners into Senior Schools, describing the process as unjust and poorly coordinated.
He noted glaring disparities in placement outcomes, where some learners with relatively lower points were admitted into prestigious national and Cluster One schools, while others with higher scores were assigned to less performing institutions.
“We have students who have been taken into national schools with 45 points, and others with 60 points and above placed in less performing schools. This is a lack of justice,” said the archbishop.
He warned that such inconsistencies erode confidence in the system and demoralise learners and parents who expect fairness, transparency and merit-based placement.
The archbishop further raised concern over delays in the commencement of learning in Senior Schools, attributing the situation to the lack of textbooks, syllabuses and essential learning tools.
According to him, learners have spent weeks in school without meaningful instruction, a situation he described as a deliberate failure that threatens their academic progression.
“The situation is that learning is not taking place in our senior schools. These children have been in Grade 10 for almost one month. What are they learning when we do not have the syllabuses and the books?” he posed.
He lamented that the affected learners had already experienced prolonged disruptions earlier in their education journey, including time lost during Grade Seven, and warned that repeated interruptions amount to robbing children of their future.
“We are robbing the future of the same children who, while in Grade Seven, stayed for a year without learning, and now they are still not learning in Grade 10,” he added.
Archbishop Muheria also criticised overcrowding in Senior Schools following the admission of Grade 10 learners, saying the imbalance in enrolment is placing immense strain on infrastructure and teaching staff.
He noted that some schools have admitted over 1,000 learners, overstretching classrooms, dormitories and teachers, while others are struggling with low enrolment and risk closure.
The cleric warned that the situation is unsustainable and could undermine the quality of education if left unaddressed.
He called for urgent stakeholder consultations to rationalise enrolment and ensure a balanced distribution of learners across schools.
“You cannot put 90 students in a class that was designed for 50, with no space for the teacher to move, and expect to give quality education, even in a national school. It is not doable,” he said.
“It does not make sense to have 20 streams in one school when we do not have the infrastructure or personnel to support them,” he added.
The archbishop further observed that excessively large student populations hinder effective human formation, noting that teachers are unable to know or adequately support individual learners in overcrowded institutions.
“Today, in this age, we have secondary schools with over 1,000 students, and we cannot say they will provide quality human formation. Teachers will not know the students and will not have time to deal with them. We must really reflect on what education means,” he said.
Archbishop Muheria attributed many of the challenges facing the education sector to rushed and poorly coordinated decisions by officials at the Ministry of Education.
He criticised what he described as a tendency to make public declarations and policy shifts without adequate consultation with key stakeholders, including teachers, parents, faith-based institutions and education experts.
He also warned against turning education reforms into political experiments, arguing that frequent knee-jerk decisions are destabilising the system and creating confusion among learners and educators.
“Our education system is not something we should be experimenting on every year, every day or every month,” he said.
Calling for dialogue, the archbishop urged the government and all education stakeholders to come together and address the hurdles facing CBE, particularly at the Senior School level.
“As the Catholic Church, we have said before and we say it again: we want to sit down and discuss how our education system can work for the good of our children,” he said.
He warned that the politicisation of education policy is distracting attention from the real issues affecting learners.
“The whole education system and CBE have become a political discussion. Yet education is about development, learning and the future,” he said.
“We must take time to think through these things. We cannot allow a whole generation to go to waste because we are too busy debating, condemning and theorising while the system is in crisis. We must act now for the sake of our children,” he added.
By Wangari Mwangi
