Education CS George Magoha is in the United Kingdom to oversee the preparation of examination materials. [David Njaaga, Standard]
Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha and a team of officials from the Ministry of Education and the Kenya National Examination Council left for the United Kingdom last Saturday.
The team is expected to stay in the UK for two weeks to oversee proof-reading, printing, packaging and shipping of KCPE and KCSE examination materials.
Needless to say, such high-level delegations have a way of exacting too much from the Treasury.
That being the case, the question then arises; why should examination papers be printed in a foreign country at great cost when the same can be done locally at a fraction of the cost? Money spent on per diems, hotel accommodation, transport abroad, air tickets and other expenses can be put to good use elsewhere.
It is demeaning to Kenya as a country and its people when a deficit of trust leads both country and people into unnecessary expenditure.
Granted, there is the perception that if examinations were printed locally, they would lose their integrity through leakages. That notion is, however, misplaced because even when they are printed abroad, exam leakages still occur.
While the printing of ballot papers locally would not only save us money but promote local industry, we would rather do the same abroad yet at the end of the day still fight and kill each other over supposedly stolen elections. There is irony that while we print exam papers abroad, our currency is printed locally.
Kenya trains, and has very highly skilled engineers, but still believes in bringing in hordes of engineers from abroad to build our roads and bridges.
As Kenyans, we must start believing in ourselves by doing things our way. We cannot continually sing about buying and building Kenya when we have a bias for things foreign.
If we must believe in ourselves, the government and its agencies should lead the way.
Fifty-eight years after independence, it is unwise for government to continue relying on our former colonial master and other foreign powers to do most of what Kenyans can do with ease.