Uasin Gishu county recently hosted the Annual Regional Book Fair sponsored by the Kenya Publishers Association.
Speaking during the official opening of the Fair, Kenya Publishers Association Chairperson and East Africa Education Publishers Managing Director Kiarie Kamau said the event aims to promote lifelong learning.
“The essence of this Regional book Fair is to take books to the people. Despite having a national book fair in Nairobi, the Regional Fair helps people to easily interact with the books at regional level,” said Kamau.
He noted that book piracy has been a big challenge to the publishers since the growth of technology where books are being sold as soft copies on social media platforms.
“We are working with the police to ensure those involved in this illegal business are arrested and charged in the Court of law,” he said.
He said they intend to donate books to selected ECDE, primary and secondary schools as well as universities in the region, adding further that JSS books will be ready in bookshops by the end of the year.
“We are finishing the distribution of grade seven textbooks countrywide. We have completed the preparation of grade eight textbooks and we are waiting for the official contract from the government and Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) for distribution,” said Kamau.
County Executive Committee Member for Education and Vocational Training Janet Kosgei said all published books should get approval from KICD and the Ministry of Education before being issued to schools.
Kosgei urged publishers to ensure books are published in a simple language easily understood by learners.
Her sentiments were reiterated by Uasin Gishu County Director of Education Issack Khalif Hassan who called on publishers to only to sell books approved by KICD.
He further stated that education stakeholders want to breed a new culture of reading books for life and not for the sake of exams and curriculum.
By Wasike Elvis
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.
