The surgeon who taught education ministry a lesson

Former Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha is on record saying he did not understand how then-President Uhuru Kenyatta picked him to lead the national examination council.

“I was appointed to work at the council; why? I do not know. And I told the President, ‘but Sir, I am a university professor and I have not dealt with children in primary and secondary level,” he recalled.

But perhaps it was his brilliance in every assignment he was given that led to his appointments.

Magoha took up the Education Ministry with a lot of optimism and promised to give it his best, especially at a time when there was a lot of resistance to implement the Competency Based Curriculum (CBC). He firmly held the position that the ‘train had already left the station’ and there was no going back on CBC.

Known for service delivery, Magoha was caught between a rock and a hard place when the Covid-19 pandemic struck and schools had to close for nine months. 

The surgeon was tasked with one of the most delicate decisions in public service: To find a way of re-opening schools amid the coronavirus pandemic. The lives of millions of Kenyan school-going children depended on this decision.

Magoha, who undertook assignments with surgical precision, repeatedly declared that failure was never in his vocabulary and that he personally gets things done as opposed to delegating.

With minimal disposition to modesty, Magoha declared himself apolitical and averse to lobbying.

Fifteen months into the Education docket, Magoha admitted he had never before seen anything like the coronavirus, which had an immeasurable impact on the sector, in his more than 41 years of practice.

But he soldiered on and personally supervised almost all the Ministry’s projects.

Last year, as he released his last Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) results, Magoha outlined some of his achievements. He described his statement as the most ‘solemn and significant’ since he joined the Ministry.

“As I prepare to hand over the basic education mantle to my successor, I am proud of my record and I remain confident that the successor will find a comfortable place to continue from,” he said.

The CS said the KCPE examination results were important because they were the last ones being released under the Jubilee administration.

He said Uhuru’s regime had seen a six-year run of the most clean and flawless national examination campaigns, which had restored the integrity and credibility of Kenya’s national certification system.

Similarly, he said the 2021 KCPE exam results were the second last before fully transitioning to the Competency Based Assessments (CBA) under the Competency Based Curriculum (CBC).

Icing on the cake

“I am, therefore, proud and thankful to the Lord and to President Uhuru to have allowed me to serve the country for the past six years, three as Cabinet Secretary for Education and three as chairman of KNEC. I cannot take for granted this opportunity to serve and I look forward to putting the icing on the cake over the next few months,” the CS said.

Milestones that the CS outlined included CBC, where “the Government had done everything possible to midwife the transition from the 8-4-4”.

He also said that teachers for CBC had been trained and were prepared for Grade Six rollout. Ahead of the start of JSS, Magoha said the Ministry had already constructed about 10,000 new classrooms to accommodate the pioneer CBC class. The first CBC phase had cost the government Sh5.1 billion.“All these preparations make me extremely comfortable that my successor will find a good script to follow in the CBC implementation,” he added.

He also assured his successor that the Grade Six national assessment was ready and all they would need is simple oversight of its administration.

“I wish the next government will ensure the security of the examinations process is sustained,” he said.

The CS said successful administration of the 2021 KCPE — and over the past six years — would not have been possible without effective coordination of government ministries and departments.

According to him, the ministries of Interior and National Coordination of Government, ICT and TSC worked with the Education ministry to run the national examinations with utmost professionalism and competency. Magoha said the 100 per cent transition from primary to secondary levels had also been a milestone that should be retained over the years.

Under the Elimu Scholarship, the CS said, two cohorts of 9,000 beneficiaries each had been identified from vulnerable and needy children who sat their KCPE exams in 2020 and 2021. Beneficiaries get fully-paid scholarship for four years. “They could not have gone to the best national schools without the support of the Elimu Scholarships. I wish to appeal to the President to provide money this year to cover the 9,000 scholarships,” he said.

On exam irregularities, the CS said the Multi-Sectoral Examinations Monitoring Team helped curb the vice.