High schools upgrade not stopped, says PS

The government appeared to backtrack on a decision to stop the upgrading of provincial schools to national ones.
Education permanent secretary James Ole Kiyiapi said the final decision would depend on the recommendations of the Task Force on Education.
The PS was quoted on Monday saying that leading provincial schools would not be upgraded and that new national schools would be built.
He said on Tuesday that there has been no formal resolution on how more national schools will be created.
The taskforce is expected to complete its work by September, which means the new national schools will not be ready for this year’s candidates as the government pledged at the beginning of the year. He said the government has had three options.
They include:

1. promotion of selected provincial schools in every county or 
2. building of national school wings within these selected schools.
3. The third option would be to build new national schools where no provincial schools exists.

“We are still exploring how to create these schools. The taskforce will help us know whether we remain with district schools or change to county schools, but it would be desirable to remain with national schools,” he said.

However, meeting the taskforce in Nairobi to review its progress, Prof Kiyiapi said that while the government intends to have more national schools, it will let the recommendations of the committee to prevail.
The country has only 18 national schools, which admit 4,000 students. Early this year, the ministry announced plans to create more of these schools, but some key people like retired president Daniel Moi opposed the move.
The idea was to pick at least two schools, one for boys and the other for girls, from each county and promote them to national schools.
The country needs at least 30 national schools by next year for the first batch of those to be created to enhance national cohesion., he said.
The 35-member task force was formed in February to review the education system from the curriculum, regulations, management and financing of education in the country in line with the new Constitution. It is expected to issue a report by July.
The taskforce chaired by a former Moi University vice-chancellor, Prof Douglas Odhiambo, draws members from academia, ministry and education parastatals such as Kenyan National Examination Council, religious leaders, journalists and parents.