The Kenyan Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) has renewed calls for for the abolition of boarding schools under the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC).
Speaking in Machakos County on Monday, October 24, Secretary General Akello Misori called on the Working Party on Educational Reforms to phase out the schools terming them useless.
Misori stated that boarding institutions were inconsequential to improving the quality of education and are only used to advance individual financial interests.
"Education is a public good and should not be subjected to commercialization interests where we pay a lot of premiums on what is not adding any value to education like boarding.
"We take very young children to our local schools yet the adults are given a lot of comfort. Education should be given the same standards," he stated.
The the trade unionist further pushed for the funding of day schools to raise the quality of education to be at par with the much-preferred boarding institutions.
He explained that the underfunding of day schools created fear among parents that CBC will not be properly be administered in the facilities.
"The fear that lack of finance when dealing with CBC should be thing of the past in the new dispensation. Day schools must be given sufficient funding to run," Misori stated.
In addition, KUPPET called for a review in the categorization of public schools into national, county and sub-county, arguing that the listing opens a window of carrying costs for the same services.
"The taskforce must address the categorization of schools. Public schools are expensive than private that the private ones," he stated.
On October 18, the Working Party on Education Reform in Kenya invited parents and other education stakeholders to submit their review on the CBC.
In early 2022, outgoing Education Cabinet Secretary Prof George Magoha dismissed calls to scrap boarding institutions noting that they are among the best managed in the country.
"Why would one imagine that we want to dismantle boarding schools, it doesn't make sense. Mine is to see we have to remain firm. With those few schools where students have defeated their parents at home and they are bringing that rowdy attitude in schools we should be able to deal with them," Magoha stated then.
He added, "Perhaps rather than abolishing boarding schools, we should get approved boarding schools which will deal with these kinds of activities firmly."
