Education stakeholders have suggested reverting the management of the education sector in Kenya to a single entity under a director of education, akin to what existed soon after independence. According to them, successive governments created many departments that disrupted accountable coordination, resulting in unprofessional fund allocations and misappropriation.
They pointed out that education was vital for the future economic, social, technological, and industrial development of the country, and should therefore not suffer the ills of frequent political interferences. According to stakeholders, the tendency for every new regime to reform education results in positions created to pay off political allies rather than for efficiency enhancement.
According to prominent scholars, including former Teachers Service Commission Chief Benjamin Sogomo and Professor Peter Kagwanja, the reforms are highly unprofessional, uncoordinated, and at times haphazard, causing so much negative impacts in the sector. They propose a cut in the number of departments and roles to have a countable and manageable system, where confusion is reduced and funds are not drained.
According to Prof. Kagwanja, sensitive areas like management and issuance of bursary need to be put in one or two hands. The process is jumbled at the moment, with over 300 segments. This complexity comes in most through the involvement of the private sector, including banks, agents of donors, individual philanthropists, and commercial firms, each having its own independent bursary scheme.
Moreover, Sogomo has been a fierce critic of the continued domicling of JSS in primary schools, arguing that this was not only unfair to students in public institutions where the facilities are totally lacking.