The Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) now wants the government to finance sports and games to develop learners’ talents.
Speaking in Tana River during the teacher’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) KUPPET Deputy Secretary General Moses Nthurima says previous regimes had given the education sector lip service for a long time and as the country goes into the Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) they should finance education.
“Now we are asking them because we are going to CBC where we want to draw talents from the learners. They should be a little bit serious, for example, in the sports and games that were concluded in Arusha Tanzania we had two teams that want to go to the continental competitions in Morocco. What the ministry is doing, they are asking the schools to pay for air tickets for the teams,’’ said Moses Nthurima.
Nthurima further lamented that schools have no money they have not released capitation for games and sports out of 1200 that is paid per every learner for this year they have only released Ksh200 which he terms as one way the ministry is killing the talents of the learners.
The KUPPET Deputy SG appealed to the new Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu to meet education stakeholders and address issues affecting the education sector.
He said, “As the minister for education comes in we want to welcome him and ask him to meet the stakeholders immediately so that we can move together because we are sure the new government will address some of these issues’’.
Money for capitation is not given to schools but remains with the ministry, he lamented, you will find in those regional sports there are more ministry officials than the people who are taking the teams there, which means this one is seen as a place where the ministry officials can earn.
“This needs to change with the new government so that we focus and become learner centered so that we are able to draw the talents from the learners otherwise we should continue doing the same things and talking differently,’’ said the KUPPET Deputy SG.