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Kenya ups gear on education MDG

MOMBASA, Kenya, Sept 15 – The government plans to shift focus to early education and adult education as it seeks to beat the 2015 education-for-all-millennium development goal.

Education Minister Sam Ongeri said on Tuesday that his ministry would be seeking more allocations from Treasury in the next financial year for this purpose. Prof Ongeri said that the ministry needs an extra Sh40 billion of its annual budget.

“We aim to raising literacy levels to between 25 and 80 percent from the current 65 percent,” the Minister said.

He said that the funds would help the ministry sustain plans of taking over management the running of public nursery schools beginning next year.

“We will be able to employ managers for these centers so we are able to take in children of between three to five years,” Prof Ongeri said.

He said the government was focusing on raising education standards in these two levels to place it at par with the free education in primary and secondary schools.

Prof Ongeri spoke at a conference in Mombasa that is discussing the role of education in combating African conflicts sponsored by the Association of Development of education in Africa (ADEA).

Speaking at the conference education PS Karega Mutahi challenged African governments to conduct regular inservice training for teachers so as to use education to promote peace. Mutahi said that despite having relevant curriculum teachers have failed to deliver because it is presented as too academic and exam oriented.     

"Teachers need to be equipped with skills to empower their learners propagate peace," he said. 

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“The one percent of military expenditure is enough to bring all countries at the same level in education. We would love to have every child in school by 2015,”  prof Ongeri added.

African education ministers from countries that have suffered from conflicts are attending the meeting.

ADEA war formed by the World Bank and major donors to bolster quality of education in Africa.

Meanwhile, ADEA Executive Secretary Ahlin Byll-Cataria said the ministers were meeting to share the experiences of their respective countries in dealing with the effects of conflicts, which he said had put the development of education in Africa at risk, further slowing down development.

“This initiative brings together countries to share experiences of dealing with conflicts and seek ways of using education to restore peace. The countries should learn from each other,” he said.
 

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