Education Cabinet Secretary Dr Fred Matiangi’s decision to withdraw money meant for purchasing of instructional materials in public schools have come under severe criticism from a key KNUT official from Masaba branch.
Matiang’i blamed schools heads of allegedly mismanaging the funds meant for the purchase of the materials by inflating prices for their own benefit.
However, Masaba KNUT Deputy Secretary General Mr James Oteki said the decision would subject schools to ‘unjustified’ bureaucracies which may jeopardize learning delivery.
“I don’t support the decision of withdrawing funds meant for purchase of instructional materials from management of schools heads back to the ministry. The decision is unjustified and the CS knows that,” Oteki said.
“This is going to subject our schools to unjustified bureaucracies and this will automatically jeopardize learning delivery in our schools,” he added.
The long serving leader challenged the minister to drop the decision and also challenged KNUT national leadership to pile pressure on the matter.
“This is going to be a disaster. He should instead come with a way of dealing with the mismanagement instead of taking the funds back to the ministry. Soon we will have delivery of chalks, learning charts or even books delayed. The CS should drop that decision and hopefully KNUT will oppose the move,” he said.
The funds were devolved to all public schools since the introduction of free primary education in 2003 and the subsidized secondary school education in 2009.