Knut Secretary-General Wilson Sossion had few kind words to spare as he launched an angry tirade at the Education CS George Magoha, asking him to step aside, following the school collapse disaster that cost the lives of seven students.
The Daily Nation on Tuesday, September 24, reported that an angry Sossion called out the CS for ignoring a damning report that had called for urgent action to reform Nairobi County primary schools.
Sossion, who sits in the National Assembly education committee, claimed that the committee had given the Ministry of Education until June 2019 to ensure total compliance with the minimum national standards in all schools, particularly private schools, as recommended by a report compiled in 2014.
The committee that published the report was launched by the then Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero in March 2014 to probe the state of education in Nairobi County and make recommendations on how to improve the performance of the learners in the county.
Their findings were supposed to generate a draft on educational policy and cost estimates for the proposed Nairobi City County Action Plan.
The report indicated that there were only 205 public primary schools in the county, serving around 193,000 students yet the school-going population was estimated at between 490,000 and 590,000 between 2012 and 2014.
The committee, therefore, came to the conclusion that close to 400,000 students who were not in the public primary schools were either in private schools or completely out of school.
Training their eye on private schools, they found that many of them were in blatant violation of basic building and safety regulations and were in operation illegally.
The report called for urgent action to forestall impending disasters in some of the risky schools.
The Precious Talent School tragedy was a clear manifestation of the face of impunity and the risk that children are exposed to by individuals who are keener on making a profit than protecting lives.
Education CS George Magoha, visited the site on Monday, September 23, where he explained that he had personally assessed the classrooms in the institution adding that the contractor had created a foundation for a single-story building before later deciding to add another floor on the building.
Sossion claimed that had Magoha not ignored the directive that the ministry had been issued with, then that accident may have been prevented.
"It is a shame that the lives of children are at great risk in several unauthorized private schools. For this one, Education CS George Magoha should take responsibility and resign," he claimed.
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