Education Cabinet Secretary(CS) Ezekiel Machogu on Tuesday, January 31, held a meeting with United States Ambassador to Kenya, Meg Whitman, at the Jogoo House Headquarters where talks about the country's education sector took centre stage.
According to a statement from the Ministry of Education, the meeting touched on - among others - plans by the government to institute reforms in all levels of education.
Ambassador Whitman affirmed the US government's commitment to sustain its support for education reforms, including the latest switch to the Competency-Based-Curriculum (CBC).
The US diplomat noted that the US government "will continue working on critical aspects of basic education, TVET and higher education to strengthen and improve the quality of education and training for students across the country.”
On his part, CS Machogu thanked the US government for its continued support towards the enhancement of Kenya's education sector from the basic education level to the higher institutions.
In particular, Machogu mentioned the Tusome (Early Grade Reading) programme sponsored by the US government, noting that it had provided the foundations for the CBC reforms.
"He (Machogu) acknowledged that the Early Grade Reading programme had provided the foundations for the CBC education reforms," read the statement in part.
Further, the CS expressed his appreciation for the green card and scholarship opportunities offered to Kenyan students in the US.
He noted that a big chunk of Kenyans who secure scholarship or green card opportunities end up remitting aid and finances to support Kenya's economy, besides earning education opportunities in some of the best universities in the world.
One of the latest support efforts from the US government includes the scholarship opportunities offered to top performers in the 2022 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE).
The Kenya Kwanza administration committed to executing reforms cutting across the entire education sector soon after ascending to power.
However, the reform process has faced challenges including the level of preparedness for the CBC switch and the fate of public universities struggling with financial constraints.
To address the bottlenecks, the President William Ruto-led administration has adopted a raft of measures as remedies including plans to privatize higher institutions.
