By Erick Nyayiera
Former Rarieda MP Eng. Nicholas Gumbo has asked President Uhuru Kenyatta to overhaul the Ministry of Education leadership for failing to run the education sector professionally.
Eng. Gumbo said that Uhuru should appoint a serious educationist to run the ministry and do away with leaders who have been running it on what he termed as trial and error.
“Those running the Ministry of Education have failed and should be sent home. They have been running the ministry on threats, chest thumping and blustering which has only created chaos in the sector. We will achieve nothing with trial-and-error leaders in the education sector,” Gumbo said.
Speaking just after the recent directive by Education CS Prof. George Magoha to introduce drug tests in schools to curb unrest and perennial infernos, Gumbo opposed the move saying that it is subjecting students to seen as criminals yet there are only few troublesome elements.
“We are subjecting all students together and judging them as criminals. This is a sign of failed leadership in the education sector whose actions are based on knee jerk reactions,” he added
The directive to have all students at Maranda High School tested for drugs while reporting back to school recently elicited mixed reaction from education stakeholders with the anti- drugs body NACADA choosing to distance itself from the entire exercise.
Eng. Gumbo who spoke in Rarieda while support in bursaries worth Sh550,000 to 75 students from Kobong’, Rachar and Kagwa Sub-locations, said the Ministry of Education has been run down by having non educationists at the helm saying it is time the president gave the ministry back to those who fully understand how education sector should be managed.
He said that education as it is today is becoming a preserve of the rich and if the government does not immediately reign in, students from poor backgrounds will be denied opportunity to access education.
“We have students who are being sent home from our schools because they cannot afford as little as Sh3000, this shouldn’t be the case when education sector is in the right hands. Threatening teachers not to send students away and completely doing nothing about it does not help,” he added.
The former legislator has been supporting the education of the underprivileged students in Siaya County through his Rarieda Education Support Action (RESA) where over 10,000 students have benefitted since 1996.
