MPs Back Proposal To Recognise APBET Schools Through Basic Education (Amendment) Bill, 2025.
The National Assembly Committee on Education has endorsed the Basic Education (Amendment) Bill, 2025, which seeks to confer formal legal recognition on Alternative Provision for Basic Education and Training (APBET) schools within the national education framework.
APBET schools are defined as institutions established to deliver educational services to learners who lack access to formal schooling. These include non-formal education centres, vocational training centres, night schools, home schools, and adult learning institutions operating in informal settlements and remote areas.
Data from the Ministry of Education indicates that more than 2,300,000 children who are of primary and secondary school-going age are either not enrolled or are attending unregistered facilities.
Mathare Member of Parliament Anthony Oluoch, who sponsored the Bill, stated that the legislative proposal is designed to ensure that the government undertakes the mapping, registration, provision of curriculum guidelines, and allocation of requisite resources and funds to APBET schools on an equal basis with other public and private education institutions.
“The purpose for which this Bill was made was, first, to anchor an already existing policy, the Policy Framework for Alternative Provisions for Basic Education and Training,” Oluoch noted. “The second purpose is to ensure recognition, registration, and marketing for schools otherwise left out due to a narrow definition under the Basic Education Act,” Oluoch added.
Kabondo Kasipul Member of Parliament Eve Obara affirmed that the enactment of the Bill would be instrumental in promoting equity and inclusivity in the education sector, particularly in underserved regions. “We will support this Bill to help learners in informal settlements. Education should not be a privilege,” Obara stated.
The initiative has been advanced shortly after the Cabinet Secretary for Education, Julius Ogamba, confirmed that measures are underway to strengthen infrastructural capacity and increase teacher recruitment in public schools.
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In a statement issued on Wednesday, 25 June 2025, the Ministry of Education disclosed that engagements will be conducted with the National Treasury to expedite the disbursement of capitation funds to all schools to facilitate uninterrupted operations.
“To support the effective rollout of Competency-Based Education (CBE), the construction of more classes and laboratories will be fast-tracked alongside the hiring of at least 24,000 teachers within the next financial year,” the Ministry indicated.
MPs Back Proposal To Recognise APBET Schools Through Basic Education (Amendment) Bill, 2025.