The Ministry of Education has warned politicians against forcing the registration of substandard schools built with money from the National Government Constituency Development Funds (NG-CDF).
Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha said his ministry will not be sued to sanitise NG-CDF projects that do not meet requirements.
He directed his quality assurance officers to investigate schools before registering them.
While leading a multi-sectoral door-to-door campaign in Jomvu sub-county, Mombasa, to find learners who had not joined secondary schools, Prof Magoha said MPs are using CDF money on uncompleted structures.
He directed education officials to give new schools only temporary registration for now.
“We want fidelity. We won’t allow schools to be registered for political reasons. Any school that has the minimum requirement should be registered temporarily. We shall register them but we will investigate. We won’t sanitise schools built by politicians,” he said.
He urged ministry officials to inspect all educational institutions and ensure they are in a good state and meet all the requirements before they are registered.
“I have realised that people who do funny things in registering schools have delayed these processes. Then there are small matters of kickbacks which we will unearth. But we will ensure the new schools are registered. The government wants to register schools to ensure 100 percent transition,” he said.
The minister said he had inspected schools in Nyanza following pressure from politicians to register them but he had realised they did not meet the requirements.
“I want to assure my officers that I will take full responsibility. Let nobody push you to register a school that still requires infrastructure. Many public schools do not have enough children across the country and we are aware some schools are also full,” he said.
But if a school needs urgent registration, he said, the government is ready to do so. BY DAILY NATION