Why Fred Matiang’i Should Be Supported with his Textbook Project

The  Cabinet Secretary for Education Dr. Fred Matiang’i announced that the government will take charge of direct supply of books to all public schools in the country.

Instead of being supported, Dr. Matiang’i has already started receiving resistance from a very unlikely place: Kenya National Union of Teachers.

According to the government, the direct supply of books to schools will safe the country more than 13 billion shillings. In other words, the heads of schools have been robbing the taxpayer 13 billion shillings every financial year since the inception of free primary education.

According to Dr. Matiang’i, the government will supply six textbooks to every form one student beginning of fourth of January in 2018.

To parents, this is good news but to headteachers, this is bad news. They say the government is out to micromanage them but if micromanagement means saving the taxpayer 13 billion shillings, so be it.

There are various questions, however, that Dr. Matiang’i hasn’t addressed:

i) What will happen to thousands of bookshops across the country? All of them have invested in course books which the government intends to supply. Are they going to be faced out of business?

ii) What will happen to headteachers who have been robbing from the taxpayer? The government says more than 13 billion shillings have been going down the drain. Who will be held responsible?

iii) What plans has the Ministry of Education put in place to ensure that the tenders awarded to publishers don’t turn out to be another scandal in disguise?

Should Dr. Matiang’i be supported? Yes. But what will happen to the 13 billion shillings that will be saved? Will it be saved to be stolen again?