From funding to teacher employment: Assessing education sector in Ruto’s first 2 years

On the campaign trail to become Kenya’s fifth President, William Ruto promised a raft of ambitious reforms across the education sector; from early childhood up to the tertiary levels, Ruto aimed for a complete makeover of the education sector; a plan education experts saw as a tall order.

Some say he inherited a sector that was in a crisis and took it to a worse place.

When he became President, the implementation of the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) was floating midstream having been introduced by the Uhuru-Ruto administration.

Earlier as a candidate in the 2022 election, Ruto appeared hesitant on the CBC system with his Kenya Kwanza Education Charter pledging a review of the curriculum should he assume power.

And Within weeks of taking office, President Ruto appointed a wide-ranging mandated Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms.

“The Presidential Working Party was a step in the right direction though some of the recommendations must be taken with a pinch of salt there is a balance of positives and negatives,” says education researcher Dr Emmanuel Manyasa.
 
The Taskforce chaired by Prof Munavu also recommended a complete overhaul of the existing education funding framework.  

In its place, a new funding model known as the Student-Centered Higher Education Funding Model, introduces funding categories of five bands ranging from those who are extremely vulnerable to the less needy. 

But the proposed model has not been well received.

“The problem began by using a means testing formulae which was never tested… The university funding problem can only be resolved if we go back to the drawing board,” notes Manyasa.

On the human resource front, Industrial action by teachers’ unions has become the most recent challenge for the two-year Ruto administration as welfare questions among teachers mounted.

After the teachers, university lecturers have issued notice of an intention to go on strike; raising the prospects of protracted turbulence in the education sector.