President William Ruto has instructed the Ministry of Education to commence a comprehensive nationwide digitization of all learner and school records. This initiative aims to enhance planning, increase accountability, and address vulnerabilities within the education sector.
According to the President, the implementation will commence within the next two months through collaboration with technology specialists and governmental entities.
Ruto stated that the government intends to digitally record information concerning every learner, educational institution, educator, and bursary beneficiary nationwide to enhance decision-making processes and ensure equitable resource distribution.
“Now progressing to the next phase, I have directed the Ministry of Education that within the next two months, we will partner with Konza Technopolis to digitize all educational details of every learner, each school, teachers, bursaries, and related matters,” he remarked.
He was speaking Thursday during the opening ceremony of the Second National Education Conference at Lake Naivasha Resort in Nakuru.
The Head of State emphasized that the government plans to leverage technology and digital information to determine the precise number of students and educators in each facility, identify staffing deficiencies, and improve sectoral planning.
“We can readily verify if we have appropriate student numbers, adequate teacher staffing, where deficiencies exist, and necessary corrective measures,” he added.
Ruto connected the proposed educational reforms to the government’s successful digital transformation in agriculture, noting that technology had dismantled cartels and improved efficiency in subsidised fertiliser distribution.
The president recalled that previous attempts to register farmers over more than a decade had yielded approximately 300,000 records.
However, a comprehensive government digitization effort has now increased the number of registered farmers to 7.2 million.
“Currently we understand how many sugarcane farmers, coffee farmers, tea farmers, and wheat and maize cultivators we have,” he said.
Ruto explained that the digital platform now enables the government to allocate fertiliser based on each farmer’s acreage, reducing fraud and misuse in the subsidy program.
“A farmer with five acres cannot claim fertiliser for 20 acres since the system automatically recognizes this and allocates fertiliser according to acreage,” he stated.
He indicated that the same approach would now be applied in the education sector to ensure transparency and efficient resource allocation.
The conference has gathered education stakeholders, policymakers, school administrators, and development partners to deliberate on reforms and the future direction of Kenya’s education system.
The president asserted that embracing technology was now obligatory, maintaining that digital systems remain essential for enhancing service delivery and eliminating inefficiencies in public institutions.