Kenya to tap into regional education sector

The Kenya Education Staff Institute (KESI) is positioning its programmes to tap into the growing regional demand for competent education managers. Some countries like Rwanda have recently embraced English as official medium of instructions in her schools while Southern Sudan, keen to revive its ruined education sector after years of civil war, are the prime targets of an emboldened KESI.

The institute is the latest government agency to enter into the lucrative specialised training for education professionals after its mandate was expanded through Legal Notice 19 of 2010. Dr Wanjiru Kariuki, the institute director, said the new legal status allows it to venture into income generating activities through offering competitive courses.

“If you want education to move forward, then you must train the leaders. Education managers will play a major role in the innovative development of the education sector,” she said.

“Already, the internet is changing the way we deliver services to the public. Innovation is therefore necessary for efficient education management in the 21st knowledge-based society.

Dr Kariuki said the new courses developed are geared towards developing the capacities of government staff to be able to effectively implement the various reforms being rolled out in the public sector such as results based management, performance contracting, gender mainstreaming and HIV and Aids in the workplace.

“Through such courses, we are able to slowly change the perception of our head teachers towards performance contracts,” she said.

She spoke at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre during the opening of a two-day conference organised by KESI. The theme of the conference is ‘Innovations in Education Management’.

At the conference, speakers representing government policy makers, practitioners as well as academic scholars and researchers are presenting and discussing innovations in various aspects of education management. The Legal Notice 565/1988 gave KESI the mandate to conduct management training, develop instructional materials, run educational advisory and consultancy centre on management issues, and conduct research in capacity building and management issues.

This legal notice was recently revoked and replaced with Legal Notice 19/2010, which gives the institute an expanded mandate as a Management Development Institute.

Education assistant minister, Ayiecho Olweny, lamented that the country’s education sector faces uncertain future over management issues including indiscipline, drop out due to pregnancy and interference by church sponsors.

“The situation today is totally different. We see blatant interference by church sponsors who pay more attention of the administrator’s faith than good management,” he said.

Prof Olweny said there was need for innovation among school managers if the current decline in the sector’s fortunes is to be reversed.

“But parents have a role to play. When dozens of girls in a primary school get pregnant, the blame does not lie in schools alone but parents as well as the society,” he said in reference to a recent incident in which 15 girls from a primary school in Ndhiwa, Nyanza, were impregnated.

Reference : www.nation.co.ke