By Lydia Ngoolo
The Ministry of Education has taken back the authority of registering schools to curb the cases of ghost schools and cut costs.
Speaking when he inspected SEKU campus in Wote Makueni County, Education CS George Magoha said as far as school registration is concerned, they have realized that field officers have been registering schools with 12 or less children usually at the behest of of politicians.
The move will not affect schools in Northern part of Kenya especially Wajir side since there are reasons for many schools to have low enrolment considering the vast area.
Commenting about ghost schools which claimed Sh3.7 billion taxpayers money, he said the government has got its own system and each person within the system has its duties.
On ghost schools cited in the auditor general’s report, he said he is not responsible for prosecution, but rather the matter should be taken up by the investigative agencies.
“If there were ghost schools, they will not be there again. Ghost schools are not there currently and if you find one you should let me know. In fact you should ask me if there are any ghost schools now but not in the past,” Magoha said.
The CS observed that going forward, they have secured the numbers of school children. He added that every school in Kenya today is on GIS and if there were ghost schools they will not be there again.
Magoha called upon whoever wants to register a school to visit Jogoo House. “From Jogoo, we will come to the ground to check whether it conforms and if it’s required. Once we are okay with that it will then be put on GIS,” added CS.
On the issue of restructuring universities, he warned the administration the as they move very quickly to restructure the university they should be careful not to restructure the whole structure.
Narrowing down to SEKU he said it has academic staff of 60 to 40 ration which is very best since majority of the universities are extremely poor in terms of staff.
Ideally it should be 70 percent of the academic staff and 30 percent non-academic staff since a university is supposed to teach and do research as well as providing community services.
He reiterated that as the universities restructure, they should remember it is the professor that defines the university so don’t start by restructuring the professors, but start with the non-academic staff which will make sense.
“The professor doesn’t stop functioning because he has attained retirement age that’s actually when they are at the peak,” he added.
He however lauded Wote campus for excellent buildings built to highest international standards,but urged the administration to plant more trees within the compound to transform the landscape.
He added that in the next two years or so the campus will be a constituent college.
