The head teacher to Yard D.E.B primary school in Nanyuki has been arrested for allegedly raping a class 2 pupil at his school. The head teacher, Mr. Charles Waitheka, is said to have tried committing suicide after allegedly regretting attempting such a heinous act. Police officers who were searching for mr. Waitheka arrested him when he was undergoing treatment at Pope John II Huruma Health Centre, in Nanyuki, where he was reported to be in a critical condition. According to the victim, Mr. Waitheka ,who is 58 years old, had developed a behavior of summoning the class 2 girl to his office together with 2 others. The head teacher would, then, order the other 2 girls back to class while instructing the victim to remain behind.

“I was told by my girl how the head teacher has been summoning her to the office and then commits the rape,” said the mother to the rape victim. When contacted by the media, two days ago, a nervous Mr. waitheka said the act is a frame up by the girl’s mother to taint his name and settle some scores. The parents to the girl are now demanding for action and say such cases are on the rise in the area. The girl who is only 8 years old was treated at Nanyuki referral hospital with reports showing forced penetration.

Mr. Waitheka had gone missing and according to the Nanyuki sub-county director , Joel Murage, the head teacher had gone into hiding after realizing the matter had gone to the media and police. “We have not been able to talk with him. He has been out of network for quite some time but I want to believe we will get him,” Mr. Murage told journalists on Wednesday. Efforts to get a comment from the culprit on Wednesday proved futile as he snubbed the journalists and literally walked off.

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The Ministry of Education has finally released Kshs. 12.6 billion for subsidized secondary schools education and Kshs. 2.8 billion meant for free primary education for third term ,2018. Ministry of education, Science and Technology Permanent Secretary, Dr. Belio Kipsang, told journalists at the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development, in Nairobi, today. The PS was accompanied by the Kenya National Examination Council Chairman, Prof. George Magoha, after steering a stakeholders’ meeting on preparation of the 2018 National examinations. The funds come through over a month after schools re-opened for third term. Most schools’ heads had raised concern over the delay in releasing of the funds saying such delays were hampering smooth preparations for the national examinations. The move is good news to most schools and candidates as it will enable schools prepare adequately for the national examinations whose commencement is less than a month away.

Read also..https://newsblaze.co.ke/public-schools-hit-with-financial-crunch-as-government-delays-release-of-fse-and-fpe-funds/

During the Education stake holders’ meeting, at the KICD today, the government reiterated its readiness to deliver clean and credible examinations. Today’s meeting was attended by schools’ heads and Regional Coordinators of Education (RCEs) led by Dr. Kipsang and Prof. Magoha. The meeting which took close to three hours deliberated on on measures put in place to stamp out cheating in Kenya Certificate of Primary Education, KCPE, and Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education, KCSE, examinations.

A number of emerging issues were discussed. It emerged that students were trying to cause disturbance in order to be allowed to use mobile phones to cheat during the exams. Dr. Kipsang, in his response, said that they will not be black mailed by some of the students and that use of mobile phones in exam centres remained banned. Students who had registered as boarders will have to stay in school even as it emerged that some of them wanted to be allowed to be day scholars, during the exam period. This was also informed by the fact that some schools lost dormitories to schools’ infernos experienced in second term. The Permanent Secretary directed such schools, lacking enough dormitories, to convert the classrooms that will be left vacant by forms ones to threes, who will close early, into dormitories.

Dr. Kipsang, also, noted that some schools are already plotting to cheat in the examinations. Speaking to the media, KNEC Chairman Prof. George Magoha said that they are investigating about 30 schools alleged to be hatching plans to cheat at the tests. “I went to Kisii, Nyamira and Homabay. But we do not want to stigmatize the whole (Kisii ) region as if it is full of examination cheats. We are focusing on four schools in Kisii, Five schools in Meru and three in Garissa“. Prof. Magoha told journalists today. The tough speaking KNEC chair declined, though, to name the schools saying they do not want to disrupt preparations for the examinations and “cause unnecessary anxiety to our children”.

Read also..https://newsblaze.co.ke/kisii-is-not-a-hot-spot-of-national-exams-cheating-kuppet-official-says/

Prof. Magoha reported that about 20 people are being investigated for involvement in examinations cheating racket by selling fake papers to schools and parents and circulating them on social media. Last week, the KNEC chair warned students purchasing purported examination papers that they were just wasting quality time instead of revising for the exams. Magoha also warned schools’ heads flouting Ministry of Education rules that stern action will be taken, against them, at a later stage as they do not want to disrupt smooth preparations forth coming  examinations. The said schools’ heads are asking parents to pay for the supposed leaked exam papers on top of inviting them to schools for the banned prayers’ days.

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The ministry of education is set to develop a software that will be used to track and report the exact location of the books that it distributes to schools, under the new text-books’ distribution policy. Appearing before the Parliamentary Education Committee, the Education PS, Dr. Belio Kipsang told the Hon. Julius Melly led committee that they are developing the software to enable easy monitoring of the books. “At any one time we will know where the books are,” said Dr. Kipsang

Dr. kipsang said the ministry is working with the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development, KICD, to develop a serialization software to track the location of the books that is similar to those used on drugs and other pharmaceutical commodities. This tracking system works by imprinting a unique code onto each commodity after packaging. This latest move comes amid claims of delays by publishers to timely distribute the textbooks to various parts of the country citing poor weather and terrain. Under the new textbook policy duped ‘one text book policy’, Moran, Longhorn, Kenya Literature Bureau, oxford press and East african Educational Publishers were awarded the Kshs. 7.6 Billion tender to cut off cartels and corruption in the old dispensation where schools were mandated with the responsibility of procuring of the textbooks.

A report released by Ethics and Anti- Corruption Commission, EACC, in 2016 exposed heightened corruption and fraud where schools’ heads could fail to purchase the textbooks and diverted the cash meant for the books to other uses. The shocking revelations showed that school heads and procurement committees could forge signatures, over price the text books or even single source the books, flouting the procurement rules.

The government has already disbursed textbooks for core subjects for all form ones who joined high school, this year.

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