Education stakeholders from various regions have raised concern over the sorry state of vehicles used by Ministry of Education, (MoE) and Teachers Service Commission, (TSC) officers in monitoring the implementation of the Competency Based Education in the Counties.
They termed the issue as lack of government seriousness in ensuring that competency based Education receives the much needed close monitoring.
This follows a revelation by Education News on the sorry state of Cars and motorcycles that are to be used by field officers in their routine supervision both in ministry of Education and Teachers service commission.
An interview with some education officers from various sub counties in Western, North Rift and Central regions, both MoE and TSC lack reliable motor vehicles, a factor that is greatly affecting monitoring of activities within their areas of jurisdiction. “The last time when Ministry of Education was supplied with motorcycles for field officers was in 2002 when the late Professor Goerge Saitoti was the minister of Education,” said one officer who sought anonymity. He went further to allude that there are many unrepaired cars littered across the sub county offices that would ease CBE monitoring.
The same scenario plagues TSC where subcounty offices lack motor vehicles. It was established that TSC subcounty Directors are always compelled to seek help from their MoE counterparts in order to visit schools. It was also established that sometimes this becomes a tall order in some sub counties when the two don’t read from the same script. “In some instances, we are forced to source help from principals and Head teachers in order to move around”, intimated a field officer from western region.
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Education News further established that TSC has officers stationed both at the subcounty and zonal level unlike the MoE. These officers were found to lack motorcycles that would help them move round the schools within their zones.
“The employer expects us to move round regularly the schools but this is not practical because we are not enabled. We have tried to request for an increased commuter allowance now that we can’t be supplied with motorcycles but it appears no one is listening to it,” Said Andrew whom we found trying to repair personal motorcycle in one of the garages in Central region. There are less than 2000 and 900 field officers in TSC and MoE respectively.
An introspect into the TSC budgets for the last five years reveled that, there has been no provision for purchase of motor vehicles for its subcounties. Ministry of Education on its part distributed over 200 four wheel Isuzu Dmax to various subcounties. The vehicles are mainly used by the subcounty Directors leaving quality assurance and standards officers who are very important just like their TSC counterparts, curriculum support officers when it comes to monitoring of curriculum implementation in the field.
It is time that field officers are fully enabled if the government is seriously involved in the success of competency based Education as it moves to senior schools in 2026.
By Naboth Murunga.
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