KICD denies claims it over supplied books to public schools

The Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) has denied claims that it authorized oversupply of text books in public schools.

The institute has attributed the move to the mass transfer of students from one school to the other due to Covid-19 that saw parents lose jobs and relocate to their rural homes.

In the last couple of months, head teachers and leaders have cried foul over the continuous dumping of unwanted books in the schools by printers.

Some schools have been forced to buy plastic water tanks to store the books with their stores already filled up.

But according to KICD Director Professor Charles Omondo, the flooding had affected a few schools after their students were transferred at the height of the pandemic.

“A few schools that were affected by the transfers had problems with the books supply but we are reviewing this problem,” he said.

Omondo at the same time denied that set books were being changed every year noting that KICD had evaluated all the books needed by schools.

“We have given teachers the books that have met the threshold and they are supposed to pick one per subject while the others can be used by the teachers for reference,” he said.

Addressing the press in Central Primary school in Naivasha, the director added that they were going round the country to make sure that all students in Grade Five had received their books.

He said that plans for the transition from 8-4-4 to Competence Based Curriculum (CBC) system were in place with the government moving in to build in more classes.

Earlier, Gilgil Mp Martha Wangari had raised an alert over possible loss of millions of shillings in procurement of textbooks for public schools.

According to the Mp, schools were over supplied with hundreds of books that they did not need as part of the capitation fees that went to pay the printers.

“It’s time that we allowed teachers to procure the books that they need and we should put a threshold on the amount used to buy the books,” she said.

She added that tens of schools in the country had been oversupplied with books that they did not require while set books were being changed every year.

“When parliament resumes we shall summon the CS for Education to clarify on this issue where printers are dumping unwanted books into schools,” she said.