As the Ministry of Education continues with the assessment program in preparation for the schools’ reopening ahead of Jan, 2021, heads of learning institutions have raised a big financial challenge that hinders the preperation. 

Head teachers who were recently interviewed, remained clear that the funds they got from the government for expansion and enhancing infrastructure is not enough to ensure school prepearedness for resumption of learning. 

CS Magoha has been quoted hinting at a possibility of earlier reopening of learning institutions than the scheduled date, January 2021. According to Magoha, schools will resume when the Covid-19 curve levels down or learning institutions fully comply with the minimum requirements health conditions for the coronavirus prevention. 

However, most of Kenya's public schools have large population of learners, congested classrooms, dilapidated infrastructure and dormitories that are overstretched. KESSHA (Kenya Secondary School Heads Association) head Mr Indimuli revealed that many learning institutions do not even have funds for school mantainance in the current situation. 

Mr Nicholas Gathemia a Kepsha official supported Indimuli's statement saying that some schools that enterely depend on funds from the government are running without equipments. 

As the Monitoring program by the Ministry of Education continues, it is the government expectation that all schools comply with the Covid-19 pandemic protocols as directed by Elyas Abdi, the Education Director-General, and that all schools be ready for the monitoring exercise. 

During Monitoring, school-heads will be expected to submit data on their institution's ability to comply with  the social distancing and safety measures for learners, teachers and non-teaching staff. This will enable the government to examine the right time of reopening schools. 

School-heads complain that upto now they have not received the stimulus package of KSh6.5 billion for infrastructure improvement as announced by President Kenyatta. However last week, a ksh.500 per student money was released for improving and maintaining infrastructure. 

The headteachers complain that the ksh.500 per student is too little to meeting the coronavirus guidelines for the 2021 reopening of schools. They complain that the money cannot afford to install or purchase water tanks, buy sanitizers, thermoguns and achieve all the requirements by the Ministry. 

Some heads said they have only met only one or two of the many requirements expected by the Ministry. According to Mr Indimuli, most schools have not met conditions and they require funds to meet the guidelines. 

Mr Gathemia also noted that no changes have been made in primary schools and it adds to nothing, to asses the institutions at this level. Private schools have also had their challenges as over 130 schools in Kenya permanently shut down due to lack of enough funds.

A standard eight pupil has been arrested and put in custody for ending his brother's life in Kebirigo village, Namira County. The sixteent year old pupil had quarreled with his younger blood brother aged fourteen years. 

The pupil admitted that he murdered his own brother over a small land dispute on Friday last week. According to the Nyamira County Police Commander Mrs Catherine Mugwe, the deceased was hit using a hoe right behind his head which led to his instant death. 

The suspect, a candidate in one of the local schools, was not pleased by his younger brother for planting 'sukuma wiki' for napier grass and even went ahead to the vegetable plantation and planted grass. 

The suspect, after committing the act, he buried his brother without anyone's consent in a banana pit which he had dug waiting to plant a sucker. After one night he went to exhume the dead body and left to report the case to his mother. 

It was then when his mother raised the alarm as locals came to witness the matter. The two brothers were in the same local school according to Kebirigo's Chief Okioga's report. Their mother has been taking care of her sons alone after their father departed from where they stayed. 

Chief Okioga said that the boy is being is held in at the Nyamira Station to help the police carry on the investigation for evidence. Her mother is also held at the police station. The suspect will be arraigned in court later after conclusion of investigation. 

Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) says the Competency-Based-curriculum (CBC) is meeting their expectations. In their latest report, they said that through performance, CBC pupils are capable of solving simple tasks as expected . 

A formative assessment tool formed in 2019, MLP (Monitoring of Learners' Progress) assessed over 1.2 million CBC learners in Grade 3 across the country. Both the Special Needs Education and the regular schools were assessed under CBC. 

Four performance levels were scored in the assessment by teachers which includes; Level 1 (below expectations); Level 2 (approaching expectation) ; Level 3 (meeting expectation) and level 4 ( exceeding expectations) 

The learners' national average score was Level 3 ( Meeting Expectation). Listening and speaking was the best achieved with an average percentage score of 35.85% while Reading Comprehension and Language structure became the 2nd best performed with 33.3%. 

English Language Activities also met the expected threshold of Level 3 in all tasks while Writing Skills and Reading Aloud proved its weaknesses at 32.60% and 31.68% respectively. Mathematical Activities performed as expected an all the 3 strands; Measurements, Geometry, Numbers at 44.55%, 41.37% and 34.04% respectively. 

A good proportion of Geometry learners scored below expectation. English Language and Mathematical Activities hit the expectation with a significant sign of achieving even better. 

According to ILA (Integrated Learning Assessment), Rural learning institutions performed better in Mathematics as compared to Urban schools. Some few lerners however, could not meet expectations in any area of learning. 

In the assessment of Special Needs Education, Communication, Social & Pre-Literacy performed as was expected. A commendable percentage of 43.1 was achieved in Signs and Common Signals. ILA indicates a Level 3 average performance in all of the 7 Special Needs Education activities. 

While presenting the results, Professor Magoha urged all education stakeholders to go through the report in order to understand and appreciate the purpose of CBC. 

Public primary institutions in Nairobi County will not receive security services from the county government as from 1st of September, 2020.  In a letter seen by Teachers Updates written by Jared Obiero, the Nairobi County regional-director, notifies primary learning institutions of the decision by City Hall. 

The 28th of August dated letter refers to the directive of Ruth Owuor, the education chief and social service head who had asked primary school headteachers in the county to seek security plan alternative as the county is looking for a better and lasting solution. 

The schools which have been enjoying the security services from Magic Security and Vickers Security firms are set to stop receiving the services starting from Wednesday 31st, when the contract ends. It is a request from the county education office that the handover be done by school headteachers on the 1st of September. 

In the letter, Board Of Management are asked to organize and secure properties of their learning institutions. County government has been paying the two firms about ksh40,000 monthly salary for each school in a contract that started back in 2018. 

The information was not recieved well by the headteachers who complained of the risks that will affect both schools security and performance. The National Chairman of Kepsha Mr Nicholas Gathemia noted that the directive was poorly formulated and that it undermines primary education. 

As things seem to be, parents will have to dig into their pockets to take care of the incurring security charges as the termination of contract comes at a very critical moment when schools are closed and Covid-19 continues to affect the nation. 

Mr Gathemia has complained that as the financial gains in the secondary schools continues to to increase, Primary School benefits have been declining. The school heads noted that there will be a possibility of performance decline due to lack of basic learning equipments and resources. 

Cases of thefts have been increasing of late in Kenya with thieves targeting teaching and learning materials mostly in informal settlements. 

A headteachers in Nyeri County has committed suicide in his office. The Baraka Academy headteacher, Joseph Mwangi, aged 53, whose case detectives are investigating hanged himself is reported to have separated with his wife and children. 
         
His body was identified by Teresia Wanjugu, who owns the institution. This was after Teresia was informed by her neighbor that there was a foul smell from the institution. Later they found out that the teacher had hanged himself with a rope. 

She immediately went to report the matter after which the police went to the school to confirm the report. According to the preliminary findings it was found to be suicide. His kneck had marks of injuries as well as his face. It is believed that rats or animals might have caused the injuries. 

According to his landlord, he had seen the school headteacher lastly on Wednesday morning. The body was taken to mortuary at the Karatina Subcounty Refereal Hospital. The autopsy is yet to be done.

Professor Magoha has revealed that President Uhuru's government is working on the economic stimulus package and especially on the money meant for purchasing about 250,000 desks for primary and secondary schools.

He said a plan is in place to ensure that every public secondary school in Kenya gets about 50 to 100 desks, adding that he will collaborate with the Interior CS Fred Matiangi and youth county officers to make sure that no one steals the money or desks meant for students.

He called on the sub-county commissioners to fully get involved in the security of this project. He warned the education cartels of stealing money meant for desks adding that money is only meant to ensure that there is enough desks for the CBC and to engage youths across the country to earn money and stimulate the economy. 
He warned of will serious consequences to those who will be caught stealing. 

Disappointment By Learning Institutions 

While inspecting the institution at  Wote, Magoha expressed his disappointment with the Makueni County which he admitted that its one of the best in efficiency and management but has failed as compared to other counties.

He regretted that an institution like Wote that's used to train people to manufacture pavement blocks cannot afford to construct pavements in its own institution adding that even the blocks made are already breaking down and of low quality. "Things cannot be normal again, we must act abnormally in response," he said. 

Magoha expressed his disappointment that the students especially ladies have to walk for a long distance at night outside their hostels just to release themselves adding that it is very unacceptable. He said that the national government had issued enough resources to enable youths to gain skills but institutions are failing to support the youths. 

The CS questioned why expensive construction materials were used in the institutions yet cheaper tiles are manufactured in the same institutions. He wondered why the institution that makes a lot of money like Wote would look like an institution that is below its calibre. He called for accountability of learning institutions noting that the government is not poor. 

On Reopening Of Learning Institutions. 

Magoha urged institutions to install enough water in preparation for the normal resumption of studies noting that schools will only reopen when his senior President Kenyatta decides to do so. He said that schools might reopen earlier depending on how the government observes the curve for two the next two weeks. 

Professor Magoha said he was hopeful that for the next 10 weeks the Ministry of Education would have made a better decision. He added that the Covid-19 curve and the observation of Covid-19 health precautions by institutions is what will lead to the reopening of schools even if it means to reopen in 2021. 

University Funding Board which is mandated to finance universities in Kenya, is seeking to stop the funding of undergraduate programmes in private universities over claims of unsustainability, a move that is likely to scrap private universities government-sponsored-students.

The program which came to existence in 2016 has successfully managed to sponsor over 47,000 students in various private universities in Kenya. According to the latest statistics, about a half of of the student's population in some private universities are financially sponsored by the state. 

When it was introduced, all students with C+ grades and above were eligibly enrolled into universities under government's sponsorship program that saw an end of pararel degrees in public institutions. 

Most private universities could not get enough students to enroll as before since most students got enrolled to public institutions due to the new cut-offs points. Due to the outcry by owners of public universities, the state decided to enroll publicl sponsored students into undergraduate programs in private institutions.

In what was seen as a strategy counter inadequate capacity in public universities, both private and public universities were given opportunity to announce their capacity of courses they offered to the KUCCPS for students placement. 

Over 6000 students with C+ and above grades, got enrolled to private universities under government sponsorship program in 2016, in consideration to their course preference as capacitated by the government.

The number of admitted students in private universities increased to over 12,000 in 2017 and about 11,232 in 2018. In last year more than 17,000 students enrolled to public universities under Differentiated Unit Cost formula by the government. 

The above formula allows students in science-enrolled courses to get higher funding than those in in business and arts. UFB claims, private universities have been unable to meet student's academic requirements due to lower allocation of resources which are not quit effective. 

UFB however recommends that students already enrolled to private universities be allowed to finalizing their programs under government sponsorship. Most universities will lose control over important revenue channels should the UFB succeed in its course. 

The UFB is pushing for financial capacity terms and strategic interests in sponsoring students in public institutions. Further, the board seeks to fund private universities courses that are not available in public universities only.

The board proposes establishment of policies that will guide the placement and funding of students in private universities. They argue that private institutions will highly compete under conditional grants, and effectively compete under partnership projects. 

The proposal will limit the number of fuculties offered in private universities in order to enable the admission if government sponsored students if approved. The current government has been advising universities to concentrate on STEM education. (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.

Special funding proposal 

On this section, UFB Seeks to funding students with disability, and women who are enrolled in STEM, masters programs or PhD. They propose a thousand slots every year for this category where they are intending to spend atleast 288,000 Kenyan shillings 

Ksh564,000 is proposed to be spent annually in funding 5000 estimated STEM female students. Ksh.384,000 is proposed for masters study of 1,500 students and Ksh972,000 annual spending to 500 PhD students. 

The government is planning to spend  15 billion shillings to install internet connection to public schools. This will enhance online learning in primary schools. ICT secretary Mucheru has revealed. 

The money will be spent in putting the infrastructure such as building computer labs, connecting electricity to schools, purchasing tablets among other digital requirements for the projects. 

Mr Joe Mucheru notified Parliament that at least a thousand schools have been identified for the Unicef co-funded project that will kick off in September 

 In the piloting stage, twenty four thousand primary schools will be connected to electricity as promised by the Jubilee government plan that started by issuing laptops to learning institutions. 

He said the project is meant to educate public school children from poor background on how to opera3compuer using network from a young age just like their colleagues in private institutions. 

Among the selected one thousand schools, only one school will benefit from each ward. In the first phase the government spent Sh.32,241,000 in buying laptops for kids in grade 1 to 3. 

Mr Joe noted KSh61 bilion more is needed for the roll-out of the 2nd phase that aims grade 4 to six primary schools pupils in 470 government primary schools. He said that the assembling of these devices will be done locally by Moi University and JKUAT. 

However, much criticism have emerged from the inner part of stakeholders in education sector, who in turn wants the state to construct computer laboratories across the country instead of issuing each learner a tablet. 

Since the beginning of this project in 2016 March, poor electricity connection has always been a hindrance. Computer illiteracy and classer that are dilapidated have slowed down the project. Mr Mucheru said that the ICT department has shifted to solar power to enhance energy connectivity in rural areas. 

Over 320,000 teachers from both primary and secondary institutions will recieve treatment for Covid-19 virus through their medical cover. Teachers Service Commission had a meeting with teachers' health insurer, Minet. 

Yesterday on Wednesday, TSC CEO Nancy Macharia announced that the dependants of teachers will also be treated for the virus under Minet policies.  She said Minet-Kenya will work together with the government in fighting coronavirus by enabling infected members to access treatment services. 

 Majority of insurance companies in Kenya walked away from their clients when it came to Covid-19 treatment even after most of their clients lost jobs due to the virus outbreak. Dr Nancy said more good news are in store, that will support teachers during this difficult time. 

She urged teachers together with their dependents affected by Covid-19 to make their report via *202*07# USSD tool meant for teachers or to make a call through   psychosocial and mental health 0800720029  toll-free line for them to get treatment services via telemedicine. 

TSC had also negotiated drug delivery deal where chronic patients under Minet measures include delivering drugs to registered chronic patients, and hand wash sanitizers delivery to Minet members. One Time Password identification will be used to reduce infection rate through contact. Initially biometric fingerprints were used in identifying members. 

 Nancy Macharia revealed an ongoing plan to introduce eye and face technology of identification in the coming 60 days. TSC records indicate that about Ksh20 Bilion are monthly spent on teachers salary totalling to KSh247.2 billion per annum. 

AON Minet which costed teachers ksh 9,000,000,000 last year is expected to cost 12 billion Kenyan shillings in commission by the end of 2020 and estimated 14 bilion in 2021. 

Medical benefits for for inpatient teachers was increasd to 0.75 – 2.5 million for Group-G category and about 1.06 for Group-R (or D4). Over one million members are registered with AON Minet. Almost a half of its members are children while the rest are spoused and principal members. 

Teachers are privileged to be treated in othe East African countries such as Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda. Macharia said guidelines from the ministry of health will help combat Covid-19 with the help of Association of Kenya Insures and Insurance Regulatory Authority. 

The senate committee of Justice, Legal Affairs and Human Rights has been concered by the high level of failure at the Kenya School of Law (KSL). In it's proposal, the committee wants KSL to slash it's fees and atleast decentralize it's training centers for Advocates Training Programs). 

They are also aiming to reduce the amount of money paid for remarking or resisting of exams by the legal education council (CLE) which is mandated to regulate administration and setting of exams and grades at the Kenya school of Law.

The deans claim that the Council of Legal Education, LSK's congestion, and lack of enough learning resources, greatly attributes to the mass failure witnessed at the KSL. 
President Timothy Thondu of Kenya School of law and Dr Moni Wekesa a dean at Daystar University law department revealed a shocking ratio of 1:900 of lectures and students. 

Moni, representing law schools deans, noted that congestion in classrooms has degraded the performance of students and  fresh advocates from universities. Giving an example of KIPPRA, he said the institutions doesn't have firms for students discussion and also students lack lecturers guidance. He blamed ATP for maximizing the productivity of such students. 

The sentiments were echoed by Fatuma Chege the Chairperson of KSL and the Chief Executive Officer Hillary Mutai who admitted that there is massive failure at KSL and agreed on ATP's decentralization for practice as a possible solution. KSL Chairperson argued that former administrators are to blame for initiating projects that have been stalled upto now leading to facilties shortage.

Former Attorney General Mr Githu called for more practitioners at law school instead of doctors and professors adding that theory of law is taught in universities. He said what KSL is currently doing is nothing but a waste of time, funds and resources. 

Githu embraced the idear of ATP decentralization blaming congestion for the compromised education level adding that 2500 taken by KSL each year is unfeasible and inappropriate. Mary Mutugi also while representing Githu on the comitee admitted of collection of surplus from students by CLE. 

Okong’o Omogeni questioned whether the charges of 5K for each unit in the first sitting and 15K for every remarking made sense even it they were documented in laws.