By Amoto Ndiewo
Kilifi North MP has expressed worries that shortage of tutors in his county could affect the take-off of CBC, leaving them disadvantaged in the implementation of the new program.
Speaking to his constituents when issuing bursary worth Sh18.8million to 2,673 students from Kilifi North, Hon Owen Baya said that his constituency alone has a deficit of 2,000 teachers.
He said since the 8.4.4 curriculum messed the Kenyan education system, CBC was here to salvage the situation.
“However, as a county we may not get the intended results due to acute tutor shortage. As a result our students may not compete favourably with other regions,” he said, insisting that the teacher shortage must be addressed by government.
The MP called on the teacher employer, TSC to deploy more tutors to Kilifi if the county is to compete fairly with other regions.
The MP further lamented that education in Kilifi is more expensive than others areas because poor parents are forced to employ more teachers through Boards of Managements. Baya cited Bahari Girls which has employed 10 tutors paid by the parents who are facing other economic challenges.
“If a national school has such a big deficit, what about the extra county school?’’ he asked, adding that this was a wakeup call to TSC to employ teachers in Kilifi.
The MP said that Kilifi also has shortage of infrastructure to accommodate junior high school classes in the CBC roll out.
Birya Menza, a parent complained that her colleagues have to bear the brunt of paying extra levies which a time are illegal but since they want to see their children succeed, they are left with no choice.
He revealed that some parents have students who are still at home due to lack of school fees despite the government releasing capitation to schools.
Last week, the Education CS George Magoha said the government had released Sh16 billion to schools to make the CBC be a success.
