Magoha opposes abolition of boarding schools

Prof. George Magoha has said it is impossible to abolish boarding schools in the country.

The chairman of Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) condemned a proposal by Education PS Belio Kipsang for abolition as a solution to end the unrest in secondary schools.

“Children are like clean slates, let the teachers, including myself, do our jobs and the children will conform,” Prof. Magoha said on Friday during an interview on CitizenTV with Waihiga Mwaura.

“We have been handling our children with kid gloves and have also been corrupt in the process… We will not be cowed and defeated by students and make us do what they want.”

The KNEC head said that day schools should be established to cater for the growing number of students enrolling in high schools and nothing else.

“If we are going to open more day schools, it should be because of the 100percent transition rate, not because children have defeated us, I will not belong to that group that will be defeated by children because even my own son did not defeat me,” he said.

Last week, Mr. Kipsang proposed that boarding schools should be gotten rid of saying the move would stem the rising cases of unrest in schools in the wake of massive destruction that has seen 39 schools closed countrywide over the past three weeks.

“The direction that we need to go is a day school system where students operate from home. The ministry would want to increase opportunities in day schooling so that parents can have an opportunity of engaging their children and making sure that the children are properly taken care of,” said the PS.

PS Kipsang submitted the proposal on July 5, when he appeared before the National Assembly Education Committee where he revealed 142 students have been arrested for engaging in criminal activities.

Prof. Magoha scoffed at the ongoing school unrest saying the exams body will administer national exams under trees in a scenario where students burn all the schools.

He was speaking at Kisumu Girls High School on Tuesday in the company of Education CS Amina Mohammed during a tour to access the situation in the Nyanza region.

A defiant Magoha said the examinations body would not be intimidated by the ongoing student unrest that has seen over 10 schools closed with majority of them being arson cases targeting dormitories.