President Uhuru Kenyatta on Thursday directed Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i to put in place effective plans to institutionalise the ongoing reforms in the learning system to ensure sustainability and entrenchment.
In a statement sent after Dr Matiang’i released the shocking 2016 KCSE results, President Kenyatta emphasised that there was no room for sliding back on the ongoing reforms in the education sector.
"No effort should be spared in ensuring the Ministry moves to the next parts of the sector to safeguard proper utilisation of exchequer resources, eradicate wastage and bureaucratic inertia that often lead to failure in the achievement of set targets," the Head of State noted.
The President further asked Matiang’i to speed up the implementation of the Education Information Management System planned to ensure that education data in the country is accurate, current and available to facilitate accurate decision making and deployment of resources.
Thirdly, the President directed that with effect from 2017, the Kenya National Examinations Council should cease the use of index numbers and instead ensure all registered examination candidates have unique personal identifiers (UPIs) in Student Registration Numbers (SRNs) that they will use throughout their presence, at all levels, in the Kenya education system.
Lastly, Kenyatta ordered the Ministry of Education and all its partners and agencies, including the Teachers Service Commission, to ensure they complete a comprehensive digitisation of all their records and programmes within the next one year.
Meanwhile, before the results were released President Kenyatta received a comprehensive report on the 2016 KCSE Examination from the Ministry of Education and the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) at State House, Mombasa.
The results were for the first time in history released from Shimo-la-Tewa High School in Mombasa.