Sabina Aroni Takes Charge of Education in Central Kenya’s Five Counties
Sabina Aroni, the immediate Nyeri County Director of Education, has been appointed as the new Central Region Director of Education.
She takes over from Elizabeth Otieno, who has been moved to the Ministry of Education Headquarters in Nairobi. Aroni started her career as a high school teacher and was later appointed as a District Education Officer in 1999.
She has previously served as County Director of Education in Elgeyo Marakwet and Kisumu before being transferred to Nyeri in the same capacity.
Aroni’s immediate task is to ensure that all those who sat for the Kenya Certificate of Primary of Education (KCPE) and the Kenya Primary School Education (KPSEA) transit to their respective classes.
In her new role, which covers Nyeri, Kirinyaga, Kiambu, Nyandarua, and Murang’a counties, Aroni plans to incorporate other government agencies to ensure that no pupil remains at home for any reason, as the government has provided all the necessary requirements for learning.
She said that they are working as a multi-agency team in mopping up all learners supposed to join the Junior Secondary School and Form One and ensure they do so without fail.
Currently, the transition from grade 6 to the Junior Secondary school in Nyeri stands at 98.9%, with Kiambu still recording a low figure of 78%. However, the discrepancy may be attributed to transfers of pupils from public to private schools.
A total of 15,781 JSS learners in Nyeri were expected to transit to Grade 7 as the country changes from the 8-4-4 system to the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC).
Some 1,287,579 grade six pupils who sat for the KCPE are believed to have transited to Grade 7 this year, in a move which has received accolades and criticism from the public and other stakeholders in equal measure.
The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) had allocated a total of 396 teachers to be posted to all the 430 JSS in Nyeri, with a capacity to hold all the 13,000 pupils.
Earlier, the Education official had pointed out that a number of schools were yet to agree on the type of uniform to be worn by the learners and allowed the pupils to adorn their old uniforms until they strike a consensus.
Most of the Junior Secondary Schools they had visited have already agreed on the kind of uniforms to be worn by the learners.
On the other hand, those who had not bought the uniforms by Monday during reporting said they would wait until they have a participatory process so that the parents and children don’t say the uniforms were dictated.
Aroni has refuted allegations of parents being asked to pay any money before their children can be admitted to school and reiterated the government’s stand warning school heads against levying any extra fee on JSS learners, as their tuition fee had been catered for in full.
The government is paying Sh15,000 annually for each of the 1.2 million JSS learners currently enrolled in public schools.
She advised parents to take their children to schools they can afford since the government has paid tuition fees for both boarding students and Day Secondary Schools.
If a parent cannot take their child to a boarding school due to challenges of getting school fees, they should take them to the nearby Day Secondary School.
Last week, the Cabinet Secretary for Education, Mr. Ezekiel Machogu, directed all field officers to enforce the government’s guidelines regarding gazetted school fees after receiving complaints that some headteachers and principals were imposing extra costs on parents.
The CS also directed anyone with a complaint over any illegal levy to have forwarded such information to the Ministry by Friday last week.
Sabina Aroni Takes Charge of Education in Central Kenya’s Five Counties
