Government Launches Initiative to Provide 9.6 Million Textbooks to Public Schools
Kenya’s Chief Executive Officer of the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD), Charles Ong’ondo, announced plans to distribute textbooks directly to public primary schools. Ong’ondo emphasized the importance of achieving a 1:1 learner to textbook ratio for effective learning.
The government has set in motion plans for the distribution of more than 9.6 million textbooks direct to public primary schools across the country from September to November.
Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development ( KICD ) Chief Executive Officer Charles Ong’ondo has said the programme will target grade one to grade nine learners.
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According to Ong’ondo Kenya will be the first country in East Africa to come up with a policy in the education sector where the ratio of
grade one to nine textbooks will be 1:1.
“The government is determined to attain the 1:1 learner to textbook ratio with a view to ensure effective learning and teaching in our
schools in the country,” said Ong’ondi.
He was speaking at Eldoret National Polytechnic in Uasin Gishu County on Friday during a meeting with more than 800 teachers drawn from primary and secondary schools in the country.
Ong’ondo assured the stakeholders in education that the textbooks which are earmarked for distribution to the targeted more than 32,000 public schools have already been approved by the Kenya Institute of
Curriculum Development ( KICD ).
The CEO was accompanied by Jane Mukuhe, Deputy Director in charge of education resource at the institute and the Eldoret National Polytechnic Chief Principal Charles Koech
The government, he stated, will not allow textbooks not approved by the institute to be used in any of the public and private primary
schools for learners in the country.
“I want to warn our tutors and parents alike not to buy any text book from bookshops that have not been approved by KICD as doing so will compromise the quality of teaching and learning in our schools,” he said.
He added:”It is our duty as stakeholders in the education sector to uphold standards in our efforts to ensure implementation of the
curriculum under the competence based education,” said Ong’ondo.
The CEO implored upon the parents and teachers to insist on approved textbooks when they are approached by booksellers to avoid falling prey to unscrupulous publishers.
He said the government was alert to the fact that some traders want to take advantage of the smooth distribution of the vetted textbooks to schools by also releasing for sale into the market books that have not
gone through the requisite quality check by the concerned authority.
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