Kitui Governor Julius Malombe joined locals and other leaders on Monday for an engagement forum by the Presidential working party on Education reforms.
Speaking at the Kitui School during the engagement forum that also brought together different stakeholders from Kitui, Governor Malombe made several recommendations as part of his contribution to the education task force to better the education system in Kenya.
Malombe thanked President Ruto for forming the task force to review the education system pointing out that funding of the ECDE, Primary and Secondary education has been an issue. He recommended that there should be introduced a levy to finance education, especially at the lower level where those who are employed can be deducted at least 3 percent of their salary.
“Most of the other sectors have a portion allocated in the taxation as a levy like in agriculture there is a levy but in education, there is no levy and we want our children to learn because education is the most important thing that you can give your child. We have higher education loan Board (HELB) in tertiary institutions and that’s why I have recommended an introduction of an education levy that doesn’t exceed 3 percent of someone’s salary to everyone regardless of whether you have a child in school or not,” Governor Malombe proposed.
Malombe also pointed out access, quality, assurance, manpower, funding, and misalignment between courses offered particularly in the Universities and the country’s manpower requirements for her social-economic development as the areas where challenges in Kenya revolve. He recommended that the education system should be aligned with the current technology trends in the way Curriculum Based Curriculum strived to achieve in giving learners life skills applicable in the current world.
He also stated that Kitui County should be listed as a hardship county where teachers are given hardship allowances just the way it is categorized as an ASAL county by National Drought and Management Authority.
“Kitui is an ASAL county among the 23 counties in Kenya gazetted and in other sectors, it is listed but in the education sector it is yet to be listed and the teachers are passing through hard times here. I also recommend that Kitui county should be classified as ASAL county for our teachers to feel taken care of as they teach our children,” he added.
Governor Malombe also pointed out that the national government should work together with the county government to ensure the smooth running of the education system across the country. He said that both county and national governments should work closely without considering that most education functions should be performed by the national government and county government should focus on ECDE only.