Publishers to release public school textbooks this month ahead of term two

KPA chairman Lawrence Njagi. PHOTO | SALATON NJAU | NMG 

By LYNET IGADWAH

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Summary

• Kenya Publishers Association (KPA) told the Senate some of the tasks assigned had been completed and the remaining bit would not go beyond April 30.
• The government’s new plan to supply textbooks directly to schools has saved taxpayers Sh13.8 billion, dealing a blow to cartels that had dominated the sector.

Publishers have said distribution of textbooks in public schools under government’s ‘one-textbook policy’ will be done before schools reopen for the second term.

Kenya Publishers Association (KPA) — which represents 99 per cent of local publishers — told the Senate some of the tasks assigned had been completed and the remaining bit would not go beyond April 30.

The government’s new plan to supply textbooks directly to schools has saved taxpayers Sh13.8 billion, dealing a blow to cartels that had dominated the sector.

“By end of April, 32.8 million books will be in the hands of five million children in Class Seven and Eight as well as from Form One to Four,” said KPA chairman Lawrence Njagi.

Phase one of the programme concludes on April 20, while the second phase is set to begin next January. The government aims to achieve a 1:1 textbook to student ratio.
Accredited publishers have had to make do with the four main printers to handle the assignments by Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KIDC).

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Only one of the five publishers the KICD hired to produce the books has a printer.

“All our publishers do not have printing presses except the Kenya Literature Bureau, which means the publishing firms outsource printing services,” said KICD director Julius Jwan.

In January, the government distributed 33 million core subject books — English, Kiswahili, Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry and Physics — to secondary school students at a cost of Sh7.6 billion. Standard Seven and Eight pupils were given English, Kiswahili, Mathematics and Science textbooks.