Education Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang said last week that all the books had been delivered to public schools under the new direct procurement plan that saved some Sh5.4 billion. The Government contracted Kenya Literature Bureau (KLB), Oxford University Press (OUP), Moran East Africa, Longhorn Publishers and East African Educational Publishers (EAEP) to supply the Sh7.5 billion textbooks to schools. By last week, KLB had supplied 18.7 million textbooks, OUP 4.1 million books and EAEP more than three million. Longhorn had distributed 3.4 million books, with Moran supplying 2.7 million. The report put Kenya among the countries that have consistently strived to reduce the student-book ratio.
Book availability
Providing data on book availability for nine countries (Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Malawi, Mali, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia) found that on average, about five pupils shared one textbook, ranging from two in Ghana to 10 in Guinea. The findings are likely to push the Ministry of Education to institute an audit to establish whether schools are making available the books it has sent to learners. Sources at the ministry said top Government officials were not happy about reports that some school heads had complained that their institutions had been given too many books.
