Thursday, May 19, 2011

Lawyer vows to block upgrade of schools

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Share/Save/Bookmark A Nairobi lawyer has threatened to go to court to block the elevation of 30 schools from the provincial to national status. Ken Okongo yesterday said the selection of schools fovoured some counties and left out others. He cited Kisii county where Kisii High School and Nyabururu Girls High School have been upgraded while none in the neigbouring Nyamira county was elevated. “Why would the ministry consider rewarding Kisii County with two national schools while ignoring Nyamira which has equally produced academic giants?” Okongo posed.
The lawyer asked Education minister Sam Ongeri to revise the list or face a law suit. “I'm giving the minister an ultimatum of two weeks to consider revising the list of targeted schools or I move to court,” he said.
Initially the government had announced that it would pick two schools— one for girls and the other for boys— in each of the 47 counties for upgrade. However on Monday, Education PS James Ole Kiyiapi announced that the ministry had selected 30 schools. Sh750 million as been set aside to improve facilities in the school.
He said good resource management, past performance and infrastructural availability were used to pick the 30 schools. Each of the schools will get Sh25 million to build new classes, laboratories and dormitories, according to Kiyiapi. However, Okongo criticised the move by the ministry saying it does not reflect balance among the counties.
Among the upgraded schools are Pangani Girls, Garissa High in North Eastern, Kagumo High, Murang'a High and Karima Girls in Central province.

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