Lugari Member of Parliament Nabii Nabwera has appealed to the Ministry of Education to extend the senior school transfer deadline which expires today (January 9) for the sake of learners.
Nabwera who was speaking in Lumakanda town said the placement process was a sham and needed a complete review after many students were placed to distant day schools they had not selected.
He said: “As you are aware we have had the worst confusion ever since I knew of placement of students at any level. This arose due to lack of cohesion in the Ministry of Education. “I blame this squarely on the Principal Secretary (PS) Julius Bitok who seems detached and not in contact with other stakeholders in the education sector,” he said.
The lawmaker who is also a member of the National Assembly Education committee claimed the PS was ill-advised to change the placement system. He said it was wrong for the Ministry of Education to centralize the exercise and have a team sitting at a hotel in Naivasha and purport to place students.
“I am very disappointed that students from Lugari could be placed in a day school in Mombasa County; that students from Kakamega could be taken to day schools in Molo (Nakuru County). That is a clear indication that the team involved consisted of desktop people who are completely detached from what is happening in the education sector,” he stated.
Nabwera said the Ministry of Education should hence give another extension to the corrective measure it took last week to allow senior schools to admit and for the affected students to pick schools because they are just learning the system. “I am calling upon PS Bitok and the Cabinet Secretary Migosi Ogamba to open up the system for a few more days to allow the affected students choose schools within their reach.” Nabwera appealed.
Last week the Ministry of Education extended the grade 10 senior school transfers deadline from January 6 to January 9 (today)
On the issue of national schools’ admission Nabwera said it is high time leaders from other parts of the county invested in local schools to improve their capabilities. He said: “I am aware that some parts of the country have locked out their national schools to learners from outside. “Whereas I would like to sympathize with the students, I think it brings out something about this country- that there hasn’t been equitable development of schools. We should blame successful governments that were there and the leaders of that time because how do you explain a situation where Kiambu has ten national schools and Kakamega none.”
He said the issue should be a wakeup call to leaders from other parts of the country to do more and develop schools in their respective regions to ensure they have the same capabilities as the national schools.
