Lamu Governor Issa Timamy EGH, OGW on Saturday chaired Lamu County Education stakeholders forum at Lamu Polytechnic to deliberate about the desired change in the education sector in the county.

Speaking during the forum, the Governor sought the cooperation of stakeholders in improving the standards of education and he further pledged to improve the standard of education through ensuring timely disbursement of scholarships and bursaries, employment of ECDE teachers, development of ECDE infrastructure among others.

“Our deliberations centered on matters of education, specifically on how the County can collaborate with the key stakeholders in efforts to improve education standards in Lamu” said the ANC party leader.

The Governor further expressed concerns in secondary school to university transition rate noting that if drastic measures are not taken the downturn would continue.

“Out of 2,040 students who sat for KCSE in 2023 Lamu, 400 were under the county scholarship program, but only 192 out 2,040 managed to attain university grades an indicator that we have not been able to utilize the scholarship to the optimum” emphasized Governor Timamy.

Flanked by his Deputy Raphael Munyua, the Governor also highlighted negligence by parents, inadequate key infrastructure eg. Laboratories and ICT labs, lack of proper boarding facilities in boarding schools and lack of teacher motivation among the factors that pose a risk to a slump of the education sector.

The County boss called upon all the stakeholders to work together in tandem towards the improvement of education standards in the county and further reiterated his administration’s commitment to improving the standards of education saying the provision of quality education was a basic human right as enshrined in the constitution. He further noted student’s absenteeism as a major threat to their success and emphasized on parents fulfilling their parenting obligation since education is the only equalizer amongst children.

Among other issues that were discussed regarding teachers included adressing the shortage of sciences and languages teachers, motivation of teachers through incentives, organizing workshop and trainings among others.

In attendance was CS Amb. Ali Abbas, CECMs led by Education CECM Hon. Sebastian Owanga, Chief Officer Md. Hafswa Difini, MCAs, County Director of Education Mr. Mutwiri, County TSC Md. Riziki, Religious leaders, PTA & BOM representatives among others.

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For more information contact communications office at; communications@lamu.go.ke