The Ministry of Education is set to abandon the National Education Management Information System (NEMIS) for a new system that will cost taxpayers millions of shillings.
Principal Secretary Fatuma Chege, while appearing before the National Assembly Committee on Education on Tuesday, February 8, stated that the current system does not meet the demands of the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC). She stated that the new curriculum was complex and needed a system that will be used to track the academic performance of students all the way from Pre-School to University Level.
The PS noted that the idea of a new system was a priority for the Ministry, adding that the government was staring at bigger challenges with the current system once CBC is fully rolled out in schools.
“I found issues being raised about NEMIS when I joined the Ministry. We need a new database for our function of monitoring and evaluating learners across the entire education system.
“The problem we are having is that we have to go to too many places to get the data. The recommendation for CBC was that every student gets a new number throughout their academic life so that their performance can be tracked all through easily instead of having databases everywhere,” she stated.
Fatuma Chege further stated that the Ministry of Education needed more funding for its budget, noting that it had a deficit of Ksh572 million. During the meeting, it was revealed that the Ministry had asked for Ksh911 million for the CBC.
“Our funding request was raised to Ksh911.90 million. This leaves us with a deficit of Ksh572.60 million,” she disclosed.
However, it still remains unclear when the system will be launched with Junior secondary school expected to be rolled out in 2023 after Grade Six students sit their national examinations in November 2022.
