Education deserves a CS who takes it seriously

This week, Education Cabinet secretary Prof George Magoha proved the doubters right when he told the press corps that like the second coming of Jesus, no one knew the day nor the hour of school reopening.

It is not the first time he has walked back on earlier policy pronouncements on this matter. When the Health minister asked Kenyans to watch out for those taking advantage of the Covid-19 pandemic to cause confusion, he must have had in mind his Education counterpart.

We have always thought Prof. Magoha was a no nonsense, straight-talking, hands-on administrator. As the head of National Examinations Council, he rooted out exams cartels and made academic grades great again.

When he replaced Amb. Amina Mohammed – who had watched things pass by through her designer-tinted sunglasses – we knew change had come to Jogoo House, and our education policy would stop being hawked like roadside chicken.

Compulsory leave

We now know, with the benefit of hindsight, that Kenyan parents should have sent a pair of shoes to Parliament for Prof. Magoha to walk in on the day of his vetting.

When Covid-19 visited Kenya and sent school children on compulsory leave, Kenyans asked the Education CS to keep his feet on the ground when coming up with a post-Covid recovery plan. He went on a ground inspection tour, alright, but his mouth and his foot haven’t been speaking the same language.

Prof. Magoha should know that he is the Education ministry’s main man. What he says is taken as law, which means it is criminal for him to be seen thinking out loud in public. Every Ministry has a Principal secretary responsible for chewing ministerial policy and presenting it to the CS in the form of digestible soundbites.

Whenever the CS faces the media, all he needs is to be the ministry’s mouthpiece because the brains already did the work behind the scenes, and got credit for it every end month.

Behind the PS is a team of technocrats who eat data for breakfast and crunch government policy to save our lives. We have borrowed loans to keep these people motivated; the least we can do is to let them operate without undue professional influence or political bias. Unlike their colleagues who went to carpentry school, our technocrats at the Education ministry don’t apply varnish on scientific evidence.

Whenever the Minister takes to the podium to speak, he is expected to echo the technical team. However, the more he opens his mouth the more he gives Kenyans the false impression that the ministry is composed of more ‘tanks’ than ‘think’.

Jogoo House technocrats

Kenyans do not dig deep into their pockets to pay Jogoo House technocrats only for the CS to remind us that he is Magoha son of Magoha. Jogoo House is quickly turning into a comedy club, and it is not funny anymore. Kenyan parents may look helpless right now because many have already eaten this year’s school fees, but that shouldn’t give the CS the leeway to toss our children around like empty detergent containers.

Prof. Magoha should know he is allowed to crack jokes about how he surgically attends to faulty bladders, but when it comes to our school-going children, we aren’t interested in his personal opinion. There’s a reason we pay think tanks a lot of money, and it is not to laugh at his jokes during press conferences.

If Kenyans must have a flip-flopping Education minister, let the President choose from a small pool of professional acrobats and legitimise this circus show.

Mr Oguda comments on topical issues; [email protected]