Members of Parliament (MPs) stopped the implementation of the presidential working party’s recommendations on education reform.
According to the National Assembly Speaker, Moses Wetangula, it is illegal to implement recommendations before Parliament has approved them.
He added that the work of the MPs is to legislate, meaning the recommendations should be debated in Parliament before they can be passed for implementation.
“I repeat nobody; no minister of government can purport to make law or do things that appear to be in the (sic) that they have made law because they have no capacity to make any law,” he said.
Emuhaya MP Omboko Milemba raised the issue in Parliament, revealing that the recommendations had caused a schism among stakeholders in the education sector, including the Ministry of Education, the Teachers Service Commission (TSC), and unions.
Milemba, the chairman of the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET), went on to say that such recommendations should be put on hold until Parliament approves them
“The recommendations that the Ministry of Education reveals the grades for pre-service teachers jeopardize TSC’s mandate as provided under Article 237 (3) of the Constitution,” he stated.
“The working party also recommended that the Ministry establishes a comprehensive school system where all levels of learning are managed as one institution contrary to the Constitution. The working party further recommends that the Ministry recruits staff for special needs in institutions, which will interfere with TSC’s mandate.”
The Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms made some far-reaching recommendations on the education sector in the country in the report released in June this year.
The changes recommended the scrapping of the categorization of secondary schools and the removal of compulsory subjects for career choices, among others.
