President William Ruto has extended the term of the presidential working party on education reforms to June 9.
Head of Public Service, Felix Koskei announced the extension through a Gazette Notice dated April 12.
“The presidential working party on education reforms terms have been extended up to June 9, 2023,” the notice stated.
The working group, led by Prof Raphael Munavu, had sought an extension of its term, which was to end last month to fine-tune the report.
The committee had presented its preliminary findings on December 1, 2022, to the President, who instructed that the existing primary schools should host the junior secondary schools, namely Grade 7, Grade 8, and Grade 9.
In a Gazette notice dated September 30, 2022, President Ruto said that the Working Party on Education Reforms will work for a six-month period and will be required to submit to him a progress report every two months from the date of their appointment.
The gazetted team was mandated to address three major issues on the competency-based curriculum and submit recommendations in the basic education sector, on competency-based curriculum and the higher education sub-sector.
“It is notified for the general information of the public that William Samoei Ruto, President of the Republic of Kenya and Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Forces has appointed a Working Party on Education Reform,” the notice read in part.
Apart from reviewing and evaluating CBC, the team was also mandated to check and recommend equitable access to education, especially for those facing social, economic and geographic marginalization, vulnerable populations, children and persons with special needs.
At the same time, the presidential working party is supposed to review and recommend a tracking system to capture and enroll children of school-going age to ensure universal access to pre-primary, primary and secondary education.