GREGORY KATHURIMA KAPAMBANA

In the term paper of pac 202 I was supposed to discuss the structure of the ministry of education.
We shall be looking only on the structure of our country Kenya and we shall not be having
comparisons with other nations. In this discussion I will look at how the structure of education at
a national level and then from there I will at the structure of education at county in regard to the
new constitution (2010). First and foremost I would like to say many changes have been
conducted in education sector since we got independence to date. Before the promulgation of the
new constitution in the year 2010, education was structured in two levels, which are; national
level and count y level. Initially we had nothing like counties but we had only provinces. So as
we shall be looking later on in this discussion is that even education has been devolved like any
other sector in our country Kenya. So let’s have a look at these structures and their components.

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AT NATIONAL

LEVEL
The following is the chart showing the hierarchy in the ministry
of education at national level.

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CABINET SECRETAR

PRINCIPAL
SECRETARY

OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR GENERAL

Directorate Directorate Directorate Directorate Directorate

of primary of of of of school
education. secondary alternative university audit.
and basic education.
tertiary education
education. and
continuing
education.

Cabinet Secretary

In old constitution we used to term them as ministers but according to the new constitution they
are called cabinet secretaries. Cabinet secretary is the overall leader of the ministry of education
in Kenya. He /she heads all departments of education in the country. Before I give out some roles

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performed by cabinet secretary of education it will be my pleasure to state some of the staff that
works in the office of the cabinet secretary.

Principal Secretary –1 personnel

Personal assistant (formerly known as assistant minister) -1 personnel

Personal secretary –1 personnel

Principal driver

To add something on the staff of the cabinet secretary I can say they are integral part of the
cabinet secretary because they help him/her undertake and run the office without many problems.
Under the office of the cabinet secretary the staff should total up to eleven. The cabinet secretary
is appointed by the president and approved by the national assembly.

Principal Secretary

The office that is under the office of the cabinet secretary of education is that of principal.
Principal Secretary is the one who is in-charge of accounting in the department of education. So
generally we can simply say that principal secretary is the one in charge of all finances allocated
to education ministry by the finance ministry. Whatever project is carried out for example
allocation of funds to be used during national examinations, the principal secretary is the one
who allocates them under supervision of cabinet secretary. The other function of the principal
secretary i that he/she is the advisor of the cabinet secretary. Recently we have seen principal
secretary of education Dr. Belio Kipsang working very closely with the cabinet secretary of
education Dr. Fred Matiangi and Amina Mohammed to eradicate the menace of exam cheating .
That office of the principal secretary which is currently held by Dr. Belio Kipsangis in-charge of
the office of the director general education and five other departments which are as follows;

1) Directorate of primary education

2) Directorate of secondary and tertiary education
3) Directorate of alternative basic adult education and continuing education.
4) Directorate of university education
5) Directorate of school audit.

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Point to note is that office of general director is a directorate like any other directorate under the
office of the principal secretary and in my chart I put it under same level with other five
directorates, but we should know that the office of the director general is the overall office
amongst the six directorates under the principal secretaey of education. Before I start to explain
those directorates you will allow me to just pinpoint the staff or personsells who works in the
office of principal secretary.

Personal assistant- 1 personnel

Personal secretary- 3 personnel’s

Support staff -2 personnel’s

Principal driver- 2 personnel’s

Director General of Education

As I said, this is the directorate that falls under the office of the principal secretary. There are
some works that are performed by director general but the main work is to advise principal
secretary on issues concerning technical aspects of the state departments. Other function
performed by director general is to oversee the implementation of information and
communication technology. The director general makes sure that the necessary technology is
used in schools for examples the laptops that were given by the government to primary schools
kids, it is the duty of general director to make sure the teaching through them is facilitated. The
office of the director general also partners with other educational stake holders to make sure
level of education in the country becomes better for example the office may partner with
international bodies like UKAID and USAID as we have seen to raise level of literacy in the
country. Also it is the work of the director general to make sure there is coordination of projects.
Any educational project for example transformation of a county school to be extra-county school
is organized and co-ordinated by director general. In the office of the director general, there is
staff that works hand in hand with director general to make sure all roles regarding the office are
done .these staff includes;

Deputy Director General – 3 personells

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Senior assistant director- 3 personells

Education officers -6 personells

1) Directorate of Primary Education

This is another directorate that is under the principal secretary. According to the new constitution
is that it should be headed by a secretary of primary education, and the secretary should be in a
job group T. the secretary of primary education should manage the body which we refer to as
primary special needs education and primary teacher education (SNE). This means he /she is in-
charge of all primary schools in Kenya and other areas which deals with basic education. Also
the secretary is in-charge of teachers colleges in Kenya. Pont to note is that initially this post was
held by provincial education officer (PEO). Some of the roles performed by the directorate of
primary education is to make sure that there are enough colleges and also enough teachers to
teach in primary. This directorate woks in three departments, which are;

1) Research policy and strategy

2) Primary education development
3) Department of programmes and grants.

The personnel’s who works with secretary of primary education are;

Director primary of education- 3 personells

Deputy Director -4 personells

Senior assistant director primary education -8 personells

Principal education officer 14 personells

2) Directorate of Secondary and Tertiary Education

This directorate is also under principal secretary office and it is headed by secretary of
secondary. The personnel to be secretary should be in job group T. this directorate Is also
answerable to the director general. This directorate is in charge of all secondary schools in Kenya
and also tertiary institutions like polytechnics and technical. There are officers who are appointed
to be in-charge of secondary education and tertiary education. The body deals with expansion of

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secondary and tertiary institutions by giving an example I can say since the 2013 we have seen
so many improvements in tertiary education, the government has introduced more tertiary
institutions all over the country. The government is also financing the students who enroll in
these institutions through higher education board (HELB). According to my views is that a
country without tertiary institutions is not supporting self-reliance among its youths because
tertiary institutions deals with imparting blue collar skills to its students . This directorate has
two departments which are; research policy and strategy and secondary and tertiary education
development.

3) Directorate of Alternative Basic Education and Continuous Education

This directorate is also headed by a secretary whose is at group T , this directorate mostly deals
with type of education that is not mostly carried out in normal class routine /programmes. It
includes adult education. One, function of this directorate is to oversee the development,
management and governance of institutions. Institutions such as the ones that deals with adult
education are governed by this directorate. This directorate liaces with other bodies like Kenya
institute of curriculum development (KICD) to come up with curriculum that is needed in these
schools. Since introduction of this body in education the literacy level among the adult who
dropped school long time ago has increased . Gumbaru schools have been introduced all over the
counties. This directorate has got staff that works together with the secretary to make sure all
roles have been performed .these staff includes:

Director adult education -1 personnel

Senior assistant director adult- 2 personells

Assistant director adult education- 6 personells

Principal adult education officer -8 personnel’s

Adult education officer- 8 personnel’s

4) Director of University Education

The directorate is headed by the secretary who is also in group T. This directorate purely deals
with university issues. It works hand in hand with commission of university education (CUE)

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and Kenya universities and colleges central placement services (KUCCPS) to make sure that the
university education is up its goals and aims. For example CUE gives guidelines on the courses
taken in universities, it also gives years under which the course shall be undertaken. The CUE
also makes sure the universities that do not follow the rules that are stipulated by CUE are
punished. Giving Presbyterian university as an example is that it was closed by CUE because
they were not offering courses under the guidelines given by the CUE. Also this directorate of
university we have seen it terminating and also bringing to an end some modes of learning like
school based mode of learning. By all those examples I have given I can say that one of the aims
of the directorate is to regulate university education through formulation and reviewing of
policies. The other role of this directorate is to coordinate strategic partnerships, collaborations
and linkages to foreign universities. We have seen universities especially university of Nairobi
exchanging ideas with other universities in the world. Some students have been given
scholarships to go and get education on other countries because of this partnership. Also foreign
countries offer financial support to Kenyan universities as a result of partnership between these
universities.

The secretary of this directorate is helped by other personnel’s in this departments, these
personnel’s includes:

Director university -2 personnel’s

Senior assistant director university education- 4 personnel’s

Assistant director university education - 6 personnel’s

Principal university education officer- 8 personnel’s

Chief university education -10 personnel’s

5) Directorate of School Audit

The other directorate under the principal secretary of education is the directorate of school audit.
The head of this directorate is the director at job group S. this body was established in the year
2016 after it was realized so many funds were being embezzled and there was need to come up
with a department that will close these gaps in the ministry . This body was set to scrutinize how

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the billions of money sent to schools were used by the heads of the schools in the country. The
main aim of the directorate is to examine books of accounts to identify the expenditure leakages
and report back to the ministry. For example the money that is meant to buy textbooks for pupils
if it is misused in any way the head teacher of the institution will be held accountable. To add
something on this I can say that this has really helped to reduce misuse of funds and corruption,
that was in there in Kenyan schools especially primary and secondary schools. So each and every
head teacher should is held accountable for the money and projects he/she does in schools. This
directorate has got staff that helps the director to run it, these staff include:

Deputy Director Schools audit -2 personnel’s

Senior assistant director school audit -5 personnel’s

Assistant director school audit- 54 personnel’s

Principal internal audit -74 personnel’s

Chief auditor -98 personnel’s

Senior internal auditor -122 personnel’s

Auditor 1 -159 personnel’s

Auditor 2- 175 personnel’s

COUNTY STRUCTURE

As I said earlier on is that now adays ministry of education is not structured under province like
it were initially but now it is structured under county. In provincial structure we had provincial
education officer (PEO) and other personnel’s, today there is nothing like that. The organization
of educational will look as follow but in my actual discussion I will briefly be shedding more
lights on other personnel’s who are in-charge of education at county level.

Director county education

↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓

TSC UNIT SECONDARY ECDE PRIMARY QAS SCHOOL AUDIT

EDUCATION EDUCATION

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The other chart below shows the departments found within county level. The following is the
chart of the personnel’s of ministry of education in the county.

County director
↓

Deputy county director

↓

Quality assurance and standards office

↓

County human resource officer

↓

Sub county director

↓

Curriculum support
officer

I will only highlights some functions of these personnel’s at the county level without elaborating
them further

1) County director

Maintain a data base of registered teachers including the unemployed teachers in the county
also he/she Manages aspects of teachers management at the county level.

Maintaining a data base for all administrative posts in the county for example other stake
holders in the ministry of education at county level.

Submitting reports about the performance of the teachers at the national level.

Monitoring and assessing the conduct and performance of teachers at count level.

Transmitting reports from the heads of various primary schools and secondary schools
submitting them to principal secretary.

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2) Deputy County Director

He/she is the one deputizes the county director of education.

He/she co-ordinate curriculum implementation in schools and adherence to the teaching

standards.

Planning and facilitating interviews for heads and deputies of primary and post primary
institutions and ratification of appointments of heads and deputies of primary schools.

He/she undertakes standards assessment in the schools with quality assurance officers.

Manage office infrastructure, transport and other equipment allocated to the county.

Last and not least he/she can perform duties allocated by the county director.

3) Quality Assurance And Standards Officer

They ensure compliance with professional and ethical standards among heads of institution
and all teachers at the county level.

They carry out routine, advisory and investigative standards assessments with regard to
teacher performance and compile appropriate reports.

They ensure compliance to teaching standards by preparation and use of professional

teaching resources like schemes of work and lesson plans.

They work with other the county director and other educational stakeholders in the county
like minister of education at county level to make sure education reforms and
recommendations are well carried out.

4) County Human Resource Officer

This personnel has not variety works to perform.

He/she is the one who is the head of the human resource facility in the county level.

He/she is the one who advises the county director of education on all matters pertaining to
human resource management and development function.

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5) Sub-County Director

He/she is supposed to co-ordinate teachers performance management activities within the

sub-county level.

The sub county director is the one who makes sure that the teacher in the count level does
according to teaching ethics and also is the one who investigates allegations of professional
misconduct within the teachers at sub county level.

The sub-county director is the one who supervises the staff within the sub-county level.

He/she is the one who is supposed to facilitate the processing of teacher registration at the
sub-county level.

The sub-county director of education can also perform any function that has been assigned to
him/her by the county director of education.

6) Curriculum Support Officer

He/she works with quality assurance and standards officer to makes sure that the level of
education offered is up to its standards.

He she is the one who collects and submits to the sub-county director data on learner’s
enrollment in schools, staff changes and other related information.

He/she is the one provides professional guidance and counseling to teachers and giving
information on curriculum, evaluation, textbook selection and training of the teachers.

These officers also assist teachers to develop and use of appropriate teaching aids and other
reference materials.

He/she is the one who identifies needs of teachers and heads of institution and advises the
ministry of education on how to do it.

The school committee

According to the new constitution is that any primary school in Kenya especially the public ones
should have committees which run them. Constitution states that for every primary school

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maintained and managed by a local authority there shall be a school committee established by
the local authority to advise the local authority on matters relating to the management of the
school. It should be noted that the school committee is responsible for managing a school in
Kenya. The school committee consists of:

a) A school committee should have eight people elected to represent each class, for example
if it is class one it should have a representative who has been appointed by other parents
of the same class.
b) A school committee should also have one person appointed by sponsors of the school, for
example the school which is sponsored by Catholic Church should choose one person to
represent them in the committee.
c) A school committee should also have one nominee of the district education board. The
board (DEB) should appoint one person to represent the board in the committee.
d) A school committee should also have three members whom are appointed by local
authority.
e) The school committee should have a secretary who shall be taking minutes while the
meeting is continuing ,most of the time the secretary of the school committee is the head
teacher of a school.
f) The person who is in-charge of the school committee is chairperson. At the very first
seating of the meeting the members should elect one person who will be their chairman at
the committee.
g) The school committee should also have a treasurer who will be taking care of the
finances. Also treasurer is elected by the members of the school committee. A point to
note is that there is no other staff member for example a teacher should not be in school
committee apart from head teacher only.

The school committee has got various functions to perform.

These roles are:
a) It deals with staffing needs and issues.

The members may advise the committee executive that is ,chairman, secretary and treasurer
on what to do on the issue of staffing in a school, for example if the school has no enough

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teachers the committee may decide to look on other alternative of having teachers who are
employed by parents(PTA). If the school needs also a watchman the committee may
highlight on that issue and give out the positive response.

B) Budgeting for school

The committee can budget for its finances that have been collected from school utilities like
school farms. They may decide to build another class if the budget gets approved by district
education board (DEB) and also local authority and even from the sponsors.

C) To facilitate in ensuring school goals and objectives have been achieved.

The school committee member may give advice and also moral support to the teaching staff
on how to improve school performance. Also if the school is sponsored by certain
domination, the committee makes sure religious traditions of the denomination have been
followed in that school, for example schools that have been sponsored by Catholics practice
religious traditions of the catholic beliefs.

D) Highlighting and solving various issues in school

The committee gives advice to the school executive on how to solve problems affecting the
pupils and also the school fraternity in general, for example if there is the issue of
indiscipline cases among pupils it can be pin-pointed.

e) Collecting and allocating funds

As I said earlier is that schools can have its own resources where it gets its funds from, for
example a school may be having a tea plantation. The school committee should collect
money that is gotten from this tea plantation and be approved by district education board. If
there is embezzlement of funds then the school committee should account for the issue.

Regulation/rules governing school committees

1) When a member misses two consecutive meetings held by school committee and he/she
do not have genuine reason, it should be assumed that the member has resigned from the
committee and he/she should cease to be the member of the committee.

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2) In each and every meeting that is held by school committee, the secretary should make
two copies, one copy should be left with the secretary and the other one should be taken
to the person in-charge of district education board or the local authority.
3) When a member dies or retires from the school committee it should be taken as if the
member has resigned and the school committee should elect the other person to fill the
gap of the so called person
4) If the appointment body dissolves the entire school committee or revokes appointment of
the member, the constitution stipulates that the same same body that dissolved and
revoked membership it is the one that should reappoint other new members of the school
committee.
5) The number of the school committee members should be odd number, this means they
should be seven, nine,eleven,thirteen or fifteen. This is because if they have come with a
proposal and they want to pass it out the number proposing and opposing not to be the
same.
Procedure during school committee meetings
1) For a meeting proceedings to go well, the members present should be at least seven.
The members of the committee may total up to fifteen. If the meeting has less than
seven members it should be postponed.
2) If the number is not less than eleven the meeting is allowed to continue. If the
chairman/chairperson is not in the members present list, the members should appoint
one member who shall act on the behalf of the chairperson. Remember the person
appointed in absentia of the chairperson should only chair meting for that day only.
3) If there are questions or agendas proposed they should be decided on the virtue of
vote’s casted out by the members. As I said earlier on is agendas proposed they
should be decided on the virtue of votes casted out by the members. As I said earlier
on is that the number should be odd so that there can be a winner while the need
arises.

Order of the meetings

We are told that the school committee should not hold meetings less than three times
annually .this means they can hold a meeting even ten times per year but it should not be

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less than three times annually. At the 1 st term the school committee should hold at least
three meetings, second term the same and the third term at least twice.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion I will say that even if we have those dockets in ministry of education in
national government and at the county level I want to point out that the county
government which is led by governors has also got ministry of education. In those
ministry of education at a county level the minister is appointed by the governor. The
minister of education at county level is not supposed to interfere with the national issues
dealing with education. The minister of education at county level is the one who makes
sure that county bursaries have been allocated to each and every student in need. Another
work that is performed by the minister of education at county level is to make sure that
ECDE has been conducted well in primary schools, this docket I think it is the only
department in primary education that the ministry of education has allocated to the
minister at county level. For example in Meru county we saw the governor constructing
classes for ECDE children also employing ECDE teachers.

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REFERENCES
Kenya Economic Recovery Report – 2004

Kenya government: Laws Of Kenya,vol .iv.171-217(education acts,1978)

Mbiti david .m.(1974) Foundation Of School Administration . Nairobi;oxford university press.

The 2003 Economic Survey (Kenya)- 2003

The draft Sesional Paper on Education and Training (Kenya), 2004

The Education for All hand book, 2002 by MOEST

The MOEST Statistics

The National Development Plan 2003 – 2008 Government of Kenya

TIVET Reform report, MOEST

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