Fredrick Odiero
Kisumu County Commissioner Josephine Ouko has said that the Government has rolled out the construction of Sh8 billion Competence Based Curriculum (CBC) infrastructural developments in schools to facilitate 100 percent transition rate for learners in primary and junior secondary schools.
While launching the programme at Kisumu, Ouko said specifications guiding it (the programme) state that the cost of building a single classroom has been pegged at Sh788, 000 with local contractors targeted to benefit and, therefore, encouraged to submit their bids on time.
She said only those with the requisite capacity to implement the projects will be considered.
She issued a stern warning to those who may be tempted to charge unreasonably high costs in a futile attempt to embezzle public funds to think twice as the committee would eliminate such bids.
The County Commissioner said that 326 schools in the seven Sub-Counties of Kisumu East (24), Kisumu Central (27), Kisumu West (53), Nyando (54), Nyakach (72), Seme (44) and Muhoroni (52) were set to benefit.
Ouko revealed that County and Sub-County Information Officers have been included in the key committees this time and charged with the task of monitoring the progress of the schools infrastructural development.
“The contractors will be paid through M-pesa in two phases; similarly, Area Chiefs have also been roped in to ensure the contractors stick to the set quality and standards. They are expected to file daily reports as the local artisans continue with the construction works,” she said.
Ouko said while the Sub-counties remained the key implementing team for CBC infrastructural development programme, the county would be doing an oversight.
She impressed upon those charged with the implementation to be diligent in their work.
“That is important so that by December 2021 or January 2022, we will have completed the work given to us by the Head of State,” she added.
The Commissioner said that this can only be achieved through a sustained speed and endurance by the multi-sectoral outfit.
Kisumu County Director of Education Mr. Isaac Atebe has revealed that some 1.3 million Grade Six and Standard Eight candidates would take their final exam between November 2021 and March 2022.
Atebe also said that almost a similar number in Form Four candidates will be writing their exams during the same period.
He said a total of 11,600 classrooms would have been constructed with some schools set to have one contractor doing between five to six classrooms depending on the population of the school in question.
