CS Ogamba Warns Against Politicizing National Schools, Defends Merit-Based Education
Ogamba assured students and parents that the government is determined to protect the integrity of education and shield learners from political interference.
Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Migosi Ogamba. Photo/Achieng Kemuma.
By Rahab Gati
A stern warning from Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba has gone out to politicians accused of dragging ethnic and regional politics into the country’s education system. The government shall never tolerate the attempts to politicize national schools for private benefit. In his comments at an occasion marking the KSCE release, Ogamba dismissed claims that students in national schools should be drawn from particular communities, declaring that such schools belong to the whole country. He said national schools admit learners all the way from Coast, Western, Northeastern, Nyanza, and Rift Valley, and cautioned those leaders advocating exclusionary narratives to consult a dictionary “to appreciate the true meaning of the word national.
The CS explained that while he had refused to be distracted by such political rhetoric all along, he felt compelled to act after enduring a barrage targeted at the sector, which provides services to over 12 million learners across the country. He accused some politicians of propagating untruths, including the government allegedly downgrading its capitation, despite the fact that Sh44 billion was just released to schools.
Ogamba defended the Kenya Kwanza administration’s record, asserting that since President William Ruto had assumed office, over 100,000 teachers had been employed, nearly 30 per cent of all teachers hired since independence in 1963. It was dishonest for leaders to claim that nothing was happening in the sector. Oh, Ogamba seemed to tell the audience who to name-their-target former DP Rigathi Gachagua– whose latest remarks on regional entitlements to national institutions have stirred up national debate. Political analysts have observed that the CS’s hard-hitting remarks suggest an increasing government resistance to perceived ethnic mobilization in advancement of future political contests.
Ogamba warned that the education sector was ready to defend itself and that stakeholders would mobilize if politicians continued using schools as platforms for “small politics.”He said that anyone with political ambitions should look elsewhere and leave education out of their dividing politics. wwwSchool Placement-The CS cautioned principals that the demand for bribes from parents seeking admission for students was against the law. He said a reporting system had been initiated and warned that any principal found culpable would be dismissed from the school system altogether. Recalling his own schooling experiences in Nyanza, Rift Valley, and Nairobi, Ogamba said that the education system in Kenya must remain open and merit based. He re-emphasized that parents could apply for transfers through the government portal so that learners could be placed in an environment in which they felt comfortable.
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