By Alistair Gould in Education — Apr 26, 2024

Rains and fakes wreak havoc

Heavy rains across the country have displaced thousands and led to the loss of life and property. With the rains set to continue, there is growing concern around the reopening of schools. Amidst the rain, a lot was said about fake academic certificates and embedding ethics into school learning curriculums - an unlikely tug of war that we can only hope is won by the right side.

Here are the main stories in education this week:

Government urges private schools to lower fees
North Rift insecurity affecting learning
School survey sheds light on better KCSE results

SPOTLIGHT

Government on high alert ahead of new school term

In the wake of unprecedented heavy rains sweeping across Kenya, the Ministry of Education is taking decisive steps to ensure the safety and readiness of schools for the upcoming term commencing on April 29.

With numerous regions grappling with the aftermath of severe flooding, the decision to reopen schools hangs in the balance, pending a thorough assessment of the damage inflicted by the relentless downpour.

The Ministry of Education has issued a directive to all regional directors of education, tasking them with assessing the impact of the ongoing heavy rains on public institutions across the nation ahead of the reopening of schools.

In a letter addressed to the officials on Thursday, April 25, the Ministry highlighted the importance of understanding the effects of the heavy rains on basic education institutions ahead of the upcoming second term of the school calendar.

Basic Education Principal Secretary, Belio Kipsang, meanwhile on Thursday said the government has put in place a multi-agency team to deal with effects of the heavy rains. This comes after the Kenya Meteorological Department on Tuesday issued a heavy rain advisory in which they indicated that the rains will continue over the next seven days.

Heavy rains have occasioned flash floods across the country and region, causing damage to property and loss of lives. Beyond this, core infrastructure such as roads, have also been badly damaged and will impact reopening of schools as the transport sector will be affected. All eyes are on the government to give guidance on what happens next.

HEADLINES

The week's main stories

Government urges private schools to lower fees: Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu says the move will open classroom doors to more children as well as expand the reach to diverse extra-curricular activities. Speaking at KPSA annual general meeting, the CS lauded the stakeholders for providing quality education.
North Rift insecurity affecting learning: A spot-check by People Daily established that learners in schools in Pokot Central Sub County in West Pokot County failed to sit for their 2023 Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) and Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA) exams due to banditry witnessed in the region.
School survey sheds light on better KCSE results: A report by Usawa Agenda Secondary School released yesterday shows National schools enjoy greater privilege compared to their sub-county counterparts both in staffing and funding. The category of the secondary school that a learner attends and not the mark attained at primary school, largely determines their success or failure.

INSIGHT

Certified corruption

An audit in the public service has revealed that high-ranking government officials in Kenya are among persons who used forged academic papers to secure employment and promotions. The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) is investigating hundreds of cases of falsification of academic documents by state officers.

Those under investigation are senior politicians, general managers of some government agencies, and staff at the counties. The scope of the probe by the EACC involves those who forged their degree, diplomas, and form four certificates either entirely or through alterations. Some individuals went to the extent of forging certificates in courses that the awarding institutions don’t offer.

The process to root out those with fake academic papers started in 2022 when the Public Service Commission (PSC) directed state agencies to authenticate the education papers of their employees. A year later, in 2023, PSC and Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) disclosed that out of the 53,000 civil servants who submitted their documents for verification over 2,000 had fake papers.

"We will now confront the monster of corruption head-on going forward, whether it is in counties, whether it is in the national government. Just imagine, a simple audit of people working for the government has revealed that we have 2,100 people with fake (academic) certificates working for the government," President William Ruto said, speaking during the Wage Bill Conference.

A recent article by Dr. Omai, PhD, an anti-corruption and governance consultant, states that fake certification is a dark business enterprise growing in a multi-billion shilling industry. But it is bad news for the integrity and efficiency of our output in the work environment.

Once again, we find ourselves grappling with an issue that requires culture change at a national level. The risks of having incompetent people in office, public or private, while genuine graduates get stuck without jobs could cost the country heavily in the long run.

NEWS

What else we learned

The Ministry of Education is set to stop deploying police officers to oversee national examinations. This announcement was made on April 25, by Basic Education Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang during the Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) Annual Symposium on Competency-Based Assessment (CBA).
The National Assembly Committee on National Cohesion and Equal Opportunity now wants the Ministry of Education to double capitation for schools with students with special needs, in order to address challenges faced by teachers in those institutions.
Embattled University of Nairobi (UoN) Vice Chancellor Stephen Kiama has dismissed the letter asking him to proceed on compulsory leave and asked the staff and students to ignore the communication. This is not the first time Kiama has dismissed the Council resolution to have him proceed on leave.

One liners

REGION

What's happening next door?

[TZ] Safety concerns rise as school buses fall short of standards: According to a survey by Smart World, many primary schools in Dar es Salaam rely on a fleet of old and poorly maintained buses to transport students. [Read]

[UG] Science tutors maintain strike despite government appeals: Science tutors at 23 core Primary Teachers Colleges (PTCs) across Uganda have steadfastly continued their strike, despite appeals from the ministry of Public Service to end the industrial action. The strike, which began on April 3, 2024, was initiated by members of the Uganda Professional Science Teachers’ Union (UPSTU). [Read]

[UG] Primary schools to start lessons against corruption, govt says: The new curriculum creates awareness of all types of corruption and sensitizes young people about values of integrity in their daily life, according to government. [Read]

[RW] Visually impaired students advocate for more access to educational resources: Students with visual impairments in Rwanda are calling for improved access to braille resources and assistive technology to meet their educational needs. They highlighted the importance of accessible learning materials during the World Book and Copyright Day celebrations in Rwamagana on April 23. [Read]

EXTRA

Just how far will AI go?

"Building AI literacy is essential for understanding AI’s principles, concepts, applications, limitations and ethical implications." This was a proposal in an article by the World Economic Forum that we shared in last week's extra.

Microsoft's newest development in AI will soon put these ethical implications to the test. It is an AI model that generates 'hyper-realistic' videos of talking human faces. With just one photo of a person and a short clip of their voice, it can generate a video clip that is convincingly real. It even made the Mona Lisa rap. See the story below from CNN to see it in action.

That's it for this edition of This Week in Education. If you would like to receive this newsletter every week, subscribe for free below with just your email.

Have a pleasant end to the wet week, from us all at the Breakroom.