No one will miss Grade 9 exams due to mudslides, assures CS Ogamba

Education CS Julius Ogamba at the Kenya Coast National Polytechnic on Saturday /BRIAN OTIENO

Education CS Julius Ogamba at the Kenya Coast National Polytechnic on Saturday /BRIAN OTIENO

Education CS Julius Ogamba at the Kenya Coast National Polytechnic on Saturday / BRIAN OTIENO

All Grade 9 learners in Marakwet East, Elgeyo Marakwet county, will complete their national assessment on Monday, Education CS Julius Ogamba has assured. 

Korou, Chesongoch and Kabetwa areas in the subcounty have been hit by deadly mudslides that have claimed at least 21 lives, with about 30 people still unaccounted for.

The first cohort of the Competency Based Education (CBE) across the country is sitting their Grade 9 assessment and the exams will be completed on Monday.

“We have our teams on the ground to find out which schools and the number of learners that have been affected and if they have, we’ll make alternative arrangements to ensure students from that area do not miss the exams on Monday,” Ogamba said.

He spoke at the Kenya Coast National Polytechnic in Mombasa on Saturday during the finals of the nationals of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) ball games.

The CS was waiting for a full report on Saturday evening to make a decision.

Affected learners will be airlifted to other schools to sit their exams.

“We will make sure there are alternative transport logistics. There are the ones that we have put in place and we will activate them,” the CS said.

The mudslides hit the county on Friday following days of heavy rainfall that have triggered flooding and destruction in several parts of the country.

The region has been rendered largely inaccessible due to heavy flooding and security teams are searching for viable land routes to take additional rescue personnel.

Health CS Aden Duale has said four patients from among the survivors remain in critical condition, suffering from severe poly-traumatic injuries and are in urgent need of surgical intervention.

Interior CS Kipchumba Murkomen on Saturday confirmed that 21 people have died in the Marakwet East landslide disaster, while more than 30 others remain unaccounted for.

He said 25 people with serious injuries were airlifted to Eldoret for further medical attention, while those with minor injuries were attended to locally.

The search and rescue operation resumed on Sunday after a pause late Saturday due to the weather conditions.

Teams from the military and police joined local communities and other organisations in the search and rescue efforts.

Meanwhile, Ogamba said he is optimistic the stalemate between the striking lecturers and the government will soon end with university students set to resume learning.

He said the government is doing all it can to ensure students go back to class, having already lost two months of their learning time.

Ogamba said once resolved, the universities will have to find ways to compensate for the lost time.

When asked how the lost time will be recovered, the CS said, “They will have to get it somehow. They have no choice because in terms of university programmes, you have to cover the whole programme. When they do a return-to-work formula, they will have to get that time whether it is teaching at night or something.”

“I thank the students for being calm. It is regrettable that we have this situation but as a government, I can assure you we are doing everything possible to resolve this matter.”

The CS said they are working to ensure there is a balance between safety and security of the students, against the demands of the unions.

 The strike arises from the 2017-21 Collective Bargaining Agreement, when Ogamba was not at the helm of the ministry.

“When it came to light that this amount has been outstanding and there is a court case that was resolved, we then decided to work towards resolving that issue although it is a historical issue,” the CS said.

He said there was a discrepancy that delayed the talks between the government and the University Academic Staff Union (UASU) and the Kenya University Staff Union (Kusu).

While the Salaries and Remuneration Commission said the lecturers were owed Sh624 million, the unions put the figure at Sh7.9 million.

Experts had to be brought in to get the right figure using the payrolls and it emerged that the actual figure owed was Sh7.7 billion.

“The discrepancy took a bit of time to resolve. After we resolved that, we then called them to the table to agree on how it should be settled,” Ogamba explained.

The union wants that amount settled at once, while the government at first wanted to settle it in three instalments of Sh2.1 billion immediately, Sh2.8 billion in the next financial year and the rest in the following financial year.

The lecturers stood their ground forcing the government to revise their settlement plan to two instalments of Sh3.8 billion immediately and Sh3.8 billion in the next financial year.

The unions have dug in insisting they want it all at once.

Ogamba said the amount the unions demand was not budgeted for, since it is a historical debt, making it difficult to find at the moment.

“The money is not there to be paid and everybody is aware of that fact, including the unions. We cannot pay money that is not in the budget. We will have to do reallocations here and there from the budgets we have already set,” the CS explained.

He said the 2021-25 CBA was settled in arrears showing the government is intent on settling all outstanding arrears.

The CS said the 2017-21 CBA debt was not incurred by the Kenya Kwanza administration and none of the students currently in universities were there when the CBA was signed.

He said the students today are being punished for something they have nothing to do with.

The current CBA, he said, has been paid in full.

“All we are asking them is for them to come to the table, look at the realities of the current situation and accept the offer that the government has put on the table because it is the best offer,” Ogamba said.

There are 12 universities that are totally not teaching while others have some form of learning going on.

INSTANT ANALYSIS:

While Grade 9 learners in Marakwet East ponder how they will finish their national assessment on Monday, government is putting in place mechanisms to ensure smooth completion of the assessment. This comes as university students also ponder how they will recover the two months, and counting, of lost time due to the lecturers’ strike.