logo
ADVERTISEMENT

MP wants breakdown of infrastructure funds for schools

Wambugu says this year Nyeri Town constituency received Sh5 million from the fund.

image
by EUTYCAS MUCHIRI

Counties06 January 2021 - 19:00
ADVERTISEMENT

In Summary


  • • Wambugu says MPs must understand the criteria used to allocate the money.
  • • He says there seemed to be a misguided feeling that schools in the Mt Kenya region do not need infrastructural funds.
Nyeri Town MP Ngunjiri Wambugu and Kimathi University’s council chairperson Jane Nyakang’o on Tuesday during the opening of an eight-classroom Muringato Primary School tuition block done by Nyeri NG-CDF in collaboration with the University at a cost of Sh15 million

Nyeri Town MP Ngunjiri Wambugu wants a breakdown of funds meant to improve school infrastructure from the Education ministry per county from 2013.

He said this will help in analysing how billions of shillings from the fund have been distributed every year.

The vice chair of the Education and Research committee in the National Assembly said that although the Education ministry is the most funded department and has received about Sh4 billion this year, his constituency has for the last three years received less than Sh10 million.

This year, Nyeri Town constituency received Sh5 million from the fund. The money was distributed to three schools.

According to records, he said, schools in some areas have been receiving between Sh20 million and Sh40 million.

“There is a school I understand that is somewhere in the Rift Valley that received Sh100 million infrastructural funds,” he said.

He said MPs must understand the criteria used to allocate the money.

“We have noticed that we do not have a lot of infrastructural funds coming to schools in our region,” he said.

Wambugu said there seemed to be a misguided feeling the schools in the Mt Kenya region do not need infrastructural funds.

He spoke on Tuesday when he opened eight classrooms at Muringato Primary School. They were constructed by Nyeri NG-CDF in collaboration with Dedan Kimathi University of Technology (DeKUT) at a cost of over Sh15 million.

Kimathi University gave out Sh2 million as part of its CSR, while Nyeri NG-CDF gave the rest of the money.

The money was used to rebuild the dilapidated school, which started in the 1950s, from scratch in the last five months. The institution was started for children of people who worked in a coffee plantation. It had wooden walls, earthen floor and lacked doors and windows.

“The school has been used a lot as an example of how ban infrastructure in some schools in the region are,” Wambugu said.

DeKUT vice chancellor Ndirangu Kioni said the university has a committee that will work towards continual improvement of the school.

University’s council chairperson Jane Nyakang’o said the higher learning institution will be assisting the school by supporting it in library services and ICT infrastructural development.

“The department of education in the university will also collaborate with the school management to improve its programmes by facilitating training sessions for staff and parents on how to get involved in the management of the school,” she said.

This, she said, will ensure parents take an active part in ensuring the school excels.

ADVERTISEMENT

logo© The Star 2024. All rights reserved