Contractors given up to April 23 to complete CBC classes

Contractors assigned to construct 166 classes in Nyeri County under the Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) program have up to April 23 to complete the work.

In a joint statement from the CBC County Coordinating Committee held at the Kagumo High School also directed Sub-County Directors of Education to spearhead efforts to ensure the work is completed on the agreed date.

By April 19, only 80 classrooms across the eight Sub-counties in Nyeri had recorded a 100 percent finish.

Out of this number, 38 classrooms had already been handed over to the government, translating to an 80 per cent completion rate for the entire County.

Nyeri Deputy County Commissioner (DCC) John Mwangi said there was need to fast track the process of completing the remaining classrooms to ensure the County is not left behind as the rest of the country embarks for the Second Phase of the program.

“We are currently behind schedule as far as completion of these classrooms is concerned and in line with directives issued by the Government through the Education Prof. George Magoha, let us therefore direct contractors who are still lagging behind, to fast track the works and ensure all the classes are completed by Saturday this week,” Mwangi told members of the Committee.

Among issues attributed to the slow pace in the work is delay in paying contractors. For instance, Nyeri Central, despite having completed seven classes, is yet to pay a single contractor.

Mwangi, however, assured the Committee the matter will be resolved by Friday this week to ensure all processing of all pending payment is done.

In Kieni East where the government was to construct 17 classes, only four classes have been scheduled for payment out of the 11 that had been marked as 100 per cent complete.

Area Deputy County Commissioner Okaka Etyang, however, said until April 19, none of the payments had been approved.

He, therefore, requested the County Director of Education, Sabina Aroni, to help in pursuing the matter at the ministerial level.

In Tetu, where 21 classes were earmarked for construction, one of the contractors threatened to abandon the work after claiming the venture did not make any economic sense.

The same challenge was reported in Mukurweini, where the government had to cancel four tenders, after the contractors pulled out, citing low returns from the deal.

The government had pegged the cost of constructing a single classroom at Ksh 788,000.

Sabina, however, said apart from challenges in processing of payment, a number of vouchers that were meant for approval for payment were found to have errors, complicating the payment processes further.

She nevertheless said efforts were being done to ensure the anomalies were sorted out to expedite the payments.

“We encountered vouchers that had errors which had been identified by yesterday (April 19). These were errors on our side that led to some of these delays in payments. We are trying on our side to push for the completion of these classes, but processing of payments is a problem,” she said.

During last year’s Mashujaa celebrations, President Uhuru Kenyatta announced plans by his administration to construct more than 10,000 classrooms ahead of the transition of learners from primary to junior secondary school.

Uhuru similarly directed the National Treasury to make available Ksh 8.1 billion for the project in readiness for the shift into the Competence Based Curriculum (CBC).

Next year, CBC learners are expected to join junior secondary schools after sitting the Grade Six national examinations, while the current Class Seven learners under the old 8-4-4 system will join Form One.