Ministry to conduct land audit in bid to secure school properties

GEORGE KAIGA-KNA

The Ministry of Education has directed all regional and county directors of education to liaise with the Ministry of Lands to undertake an audit of all land belonging to educational institutions and ensure they have title deeds.

Speaking when he commissioned 12 classrooms of Junior Secondary Schools at Kakamega Primary School, Dr. Ogamba said, “I direct all directors of education to undertake an audit of all land belonging to education institutions and ensure the land is protected, as well as get land title deeds for the same,” he said.

He said MOE will work with the Ministry of Lands to ensure all our educational institutions and other public land are protected.

The CS noted that private developers have been eyeing land meant for schools, citing Mombasa and Nairobi as the counties where the trend is most rampant.

“I want to put on notice those thinking land belonging to institutions is available for grabbing. Start exiting because we will ensure government machinery takes back this land,” he warned.

He said the government is doing everything possible to ensure the transition of pupils to Grade Nine is smooth. He said the building of new 16,000 Grade Nine classrooms is on course.

 The CS said the government decided to devolve the resources to construct the schools to local contractors so that the construction helps to support the government agenda of Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA).

“We will continue to work together to improve infrastructure in schools to ensure our pupils get a conducive learning environment,” he said.

He added that the MOE is currently re-tooling teachers across the country to fit in the new Competency-Based Curriculum ((CBC) system of education.

“Let us not say we do not have teachers for Grade Nine, what we are doing is re-tooling those available and employing more,” he added.

Ogamba said already 46,000 teachers employed on internship programmes will transit to permanent and pensionable terms starting January 2025, while another 20,000 science-based teachers will soon be employed.

The CS explained that the government started distribution of textbooks to all JSS schools way back in October and that the exercise will end by December 15, this year to ensure the ratio of one textbook per subject is met.

This is part of the government's efforts to ensure grade nine pupils are adequately taken care of as schools reopen in January next year.

He hailed the National Government Constituency Development Fund and county governments for supporting construction of additional JSS classrooms and Early Childhood Education Development (ECED) classrooms respectively.

Speaking at the venue, Regional Director of Education Jared Obiero said the region has already completed construction of 483 classrooms, while another 1,137 under phase two are 75 per cent complete.

He added that the NG-CDF is doing another 600 classrooms, while the national government will embark on another 1,237 classrooms in phase three.

The CS said land belonging to Kakamega Primary School that was allegedly grabbed by a private developer will be reverted to the school.