KUPPET opposes Governments book procurement plan

The Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) has opposed the Education Ministry’s plan to take over procurement of books for public schools.

KUPPET vice chair Julius Korir claimed there would be massive corruption if the Ministry takes over the procurement of books.

Speaking at a teachers meeting in Eldoret, the KUPPET vice chair confirmed that they have already written a letter to Education CS Fred Matiang’i opposing the plan.

However, the education CS had earlier said the ministry has already reached out to the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC), to carry out system review of text book purchase programme, to expose potential corruption networks.

Matiang’i had noted that those found culpable will be dealt with accordingly.

In February 2016, Matiang’i, called for a review of the textbook distribution method in the free basic education programme, saying it lacked accountability.

According to Matiang’i, the student to book ratio is at about 5:1, even though the government was pumping billions of shillings into schools under the Free Primary Education (FPE) programme.

The Education Cabinet Secretary said the government is working to reduce the ratio to 1:1, even as he called for more measures to ensure taxpayers’ money is not lost while distributing textbooks.

This came a week after the government revealed it had disbursed Ksh21.5 billion towards the Free Primary and Free Secondary Education programmes.

According to the Ministry of Education, Ksh15.2 billion will be spent on Free Day Secondary Education (FDSE) and will benefit 2,354,786 students in 8,041 public secondary schools.

Ksh6.6 billion will on the other hand benefit 8,933, 038 pupils in 21,745 public primary schools.

The money is meant to meet tuition and operations expenses the schools incur while providing education services to learners in basic education institutions.