Six education Bills now before Parliament seek to overhaul laws enacted in 2013 to align the sector with the 2010 Constitution and its emphasis on devolution, decentralisation and expanded rights.
The Bills follow the 2023 Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms, which recommended structural, institutional and legal changes, including revision of existing laws to align education with Competency-Based Education.
Parliament’s Committee on Education has begun public participation forums before the proposed laws are debated. The six Bills are the Basic Education Bill; Pre-Service Education and In-Service Training Bill; Tertiary Education, Placement and Funding Bill; Kenya National Educational Assessments Council Bill; Kenya National Qualifications Framework (Amendment) Bill; and Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (Amendment) Bill.
Four proposals would make significant changes to governance, teacher training, tertiary funding and assessment.
The Basic Education Bill would replace the Education Act of 2013 and gives the Cabinet Secretary sole authority to prescribe the system and structure of education through regulations. The existing law requires consultation with stakeholders and the national education board.
The Bill would also make county commissioners chair county education boards, replacing the current arrangement under which distinguished education experts chair the boards. This raises questions about devolution and the return of national administrators to grassroots education governance.
Another proposal is to create a director of inspections responsible for enforcing quality standards. While an independent quality assurance function could strengthen oversight, the proposed title and enforcement role warrant consideration of whether the emphasis should be on supporting schools to improve.
The Bill also proposes consolidating bursaries and scholarships under the Cabinet Secretary to address fragmented disbursement, delayed allocations and weak predictability.
Currently, education support is channelled through several schemes, including the National Government Constituencies Development Fund, county governments, the Women Representatives Fund and the Presidential Secondary School Bursary Fund. Fragmentation can leave some deserving students without adequate support while others receive multiple or insufficient allocations.
The ministry has previously struggled with bursary administration, leading to the transfer of management to constituencies in 2003. That arrangement has also faced shortcomings.
The 2021 Taskforce on Enhancing Access, Relevance, Transition, Equity, and Quality for Effective Curriculum Reforms Implementation, chaired by Prof Fatuma Chege, recommended consolidating bursaries and establishing an agency to manage them. The Presidential Working Party, chaired by Prof Raphael Munavu, similarly proposed a Kenya Basic Education Bursaries and Scholarship Council.
Prof Raphael Munavu during a past event in Nairobi.
Photo credit: Bonface Bogita | Nation Media Group
An independent agency, rather than a ministry unit, would therefore provide an institutional framework for managing the funds, subject to adequate accountability and oversight.
The Bill would also establish the Kenya Institute of Special Education in law and incorporate the Kenya Institute of the Blind as a campus. The institute currently operates under a 1986 legal notice. Giving it a statutory foundation could strengthen its governance and role in training teachers and support staff for special-needs education.
It would further create a National Council for Education in Marginalised Communities to mobilise resources and coordinate, monitor and evaluate learning in marginalised regions. The proposal, however, raises questions about its mandate and possible overlap with existing ministry agencies.
Another significant provision is free pre-school education, with county governments required to provide funding for early learning. Free primary education was introduced in 2003 and subsidised secondary education in 2007, but pre-school has largely remained a parental responsibility, limiting access to foundational learning for some children.
The Pre-Service Education and In-Service Training Bill proposes a far-reaching restructuring of teacher training. It would bring the country’s 32 pre-service teacher training colleges under one Kenya Teacher Training College, with existing institutions becoming campuses.
The proposal represents a major administrative shift and raises questions about the problem it seeks to solve and its compatibility with devolution. It also requires scrutiny of whether a single institution can adequately respond to different local contexts.
The Bill’s stated rationale is to improve management, quality and standards enforcement. Yet research by UNESCO, Education International and the World Bank has generally supported decentralised teacher training frameworks that allow greater institutional autonomy and flexibility.
The Bill would also establish a Kenya School of Education to provide in-service training for education managers, school boards and county education boards. This would affect institutions such as the Kenya Education Management Institute, which trains education leaders, and the Centre for Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, which provides in-service training for science and technology teachers.
Existing diploma teacher training colleges, including Kibabii, Kagumo and Lugari, would also be phased out.
Taken together, the proposals would reshape teacher training, with implications for funding, infrastructure, institutional autonomy, training quality and administrative responsibilities.
The Tertiary Education, Placement and Funding Bill would reorganise placement and financing for students in universities and colleges. It proposes expanding the mandate of the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service to cover all tertiary institutions.
It would also establish a Tertiary Education Funding Authority to take over the Higher Education Loans Board’s role in managing student loans and bursaries. The University Funding Board and Technical and Vocational Education and Training Board would be abolished, with their functions consolidated under the new authority.
Significantly, the Bill provides for loans to eligible students rather than free financing, despite public pronouncements by President William Ruto on free financing. The proposed authority would establish new criteria for allocating loans instead of relying on the current means-testing model.
President William Ruto, Deputy President Prof Kithure Kindiki, Knut Chairman Patrick Karinga (right) and Kuppet Chairman Omboko Milemba during a meeting with over 10,000 teachers at State House, Nairobi on September 13, 2025.
Photo credit: PCS
It would also determine interest rates, potentially including market-based rates, with implications for graduates’ debt burdens and repayment capacity.
Beyond the proposed structure, a key issue is whether the Government can provide enough money to finance all eligible students. Public financing has declined relative to the growing number of qualifying students. Alternative sources, including concessional loans, unit trusts, endowments and donations, remain uncertain.
The Kenya National Educational Assessments Council Bill would repeal the law establishing the Kenya National Examinations Council and replace it with a body focused on assessment, reflecting the shift towards Competency-Based Education.
The Bill would also bar examiners from striking during examination periods. The proposal must be considered alongside labour law and Article 41(2) of the Constitution, which protects workers’ right to strike.
The Kenya National Qualifications Framework (Amendment) Bill proposes a national database of qualifications awarded by universities, colleges and other institutions.
It would also require all qualification-awarding institutions to register and introduce tougher penalties for those operating without registration.
The Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (Amendment) Bill mainly seeks to streamline the institute’s operations and align its legal framework with the other proposed changes.
Taken together, the Bills represent a substantial attempt to recast Kenya’s education system. Their passage would alter how education is governed, teachers are trained, students are funded and learning is assessed.
The public participation process therefore needs to test not only whether the proposals address weaknesses identified in the education system, but also whether they avoid duplication, preserve institutional accountability and respect constitutional principles on governance and workers’ rights.
