The government is committed to continue investing in education to empower the youth to build a labour force that will underwrite the development of the country, Basic Education Principal Secretary (PS) Belio Kipsang has said.
He assured that they will continue to focus on enhancement of education systems in the country to enable quality learning.
Speaking while opening a three-day Children Devolution Conference at Mpesa Foundation Academy in Thika, Kiambu County, Kipsang’ noted that they will continue focusing on enhancement of education systems in the country for quality learning and posterity.
He singled out that the government had in the 2023/2024 budget allocated Ksh628 billion towards expenditure in the education sector.
Among the funds, Ksh10 billion has been allocated for capitation to Junior Secondary Schools (JSSs), Ksh30 billion to the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) and more money has been allocated to the TSC to hire 20,000 teachers for secondary and primary schools.
“30% of our 2023/2024 budget which amounts to Ksh628 billion has been set aside to take care of you as our children. We have put a lot of focus on this to ensure that we give you free primary education, free day-school education at the secondary level, pay for the exams of all learners including those in public schools and mainstream our children with special needs in our education systems,” he said.
He added: “We are also working towards helping you access education digitally by building relevant infrastructure including our education cloud at KICD and mitigate school dropouts by ensuring that we provide meals.”
Kipsang’ lauded the collaboration between the national and local governments in various sectors to ensure that students access quality education.
“With such collaborations, we will have done what the constitution demands of us – ensuring that learners access quality education to not only build their confidence but also prepare them for a brighter future,” he said.
Kiambu Governor Kimani Wamatangi revealed that his government had embarked on an ambitious ECDE school feeding programme to keep learners in class, where children will be receiving eggs and porridge on a daily basis to boost their retention in school.
“We want to build accessibility to early childhood development education. We have launched a feeding programme in all our ECDEs to ensure that our young ones receive adequate nourishment,” he stated.
Following an upsurge in the number of street families in the county, the governor noted that his administration will begin putting up safe homes for the neglected children
“We have the second largest number of street families. We are investing in rehabilitative, reintegrative, resocialization and preventive programmes to ensure that every child has a chance for a better future,” said Wamatangi.
UNICEF representative Robert Simiyu called on the government to increase budgetary allocations for education reiterating the need for all children to remain in school and to continue studying uninterrupted.
By Kamau Njoroge
Get more stories from our website: Education News
You can also follow our social media pages on Twitter: Education News KE and Facebook: Education News Newspaper for timely updates.
