KICD Set to Lose It’s Key Role to SEPU
The Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) will be replaced by the School Equipment Production Unit (SEPU) in the purchase and distribution of textbooks to public schools, according to the report that the Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms (PWPER) gave to President Ruto.
As a result, KICD will only concentrate on its two primary responsibilities—creating curriculum and reviewing manuscripts for book publishers. SEPU will handle the purchasing in the interim.
The PWPER report also recommends restructuring SEPU and changing its name to the School Learning and Instruction Materials Centre (SLIMC) in order to better reflect its expanded role.
“Make provisions for the SLIMC’s creation in the Basic Education Act and broaden its purview to cover the acquisition and dissemination of educational and instructional resources. Therefore, PWPER suggests that the current arrangement, in which KICD purchases books for schools, be ended and the function transferred to the reformed Sepu.
Another recommendation in the report is for SLIMC to be responsible for providing publishers and digital content creators with high-quality training on content development. Currently, the KICD fills this position.
The Basic Education Department, KICD, Kenya National Examinations Council, Kenya Teacher Training College, National Treasury, and the Private Schools Association will all have representatives on the SLIMC, which will have a broad membership.
At all educational levels, there have been conversations about increasing basic education funding per student. As a result, SLIMC will have more influence over the spending plan for educational resources like books.
Pre-primary students will receive Sh1,125, primary students will receive Sh1,808, junior students will receive Sh5,826 and senior secondary students will receive Sh7,844.
Changes to the quantity of authorised books the government may purchase for school supplies are also suggested by the PWPER study.
A single book is typically chosen by KICD for each subject based on the technical rating and cost.
The report recommended strengthening KICD’s ability to publish course books in regions where publishers do not submit manuscripts for review and guaranteeing that the top two KICD-evaluated textbooks are provided to each public school.
All public schools with junior secondary students received textbooks worth Sh3.2 billion in February 2023 from the government. Over 17 million student textbooks and over 400,000 teaching resources from all subject areas were included in the shipment.
In order to address worries that significant sums had been spent without reaching a 1:1 learner-to-textbook ratio, which has now been achieved successfully, the direct textbook procurement strategy was established in 2018.
KICD Set to Lose It’s Key Role to SEPU
