Kuppet says the two-week period set aside for the exercise is too short to allow meaningful public engagement.Stakeholders have raised concerns over the quality and pace of ongoing public participation on six education reform Bills, with the Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) calling for the exercise to be suspended until Kenyans are adequately sensitised on the proposed laws.
The National Assembly Departmental Committee on Education began public participation forums on September 14, with the exercise expected to run until September 25 across 31 selected counties.
Kuppet says the two-week period set aside for the exercise is too short to allow meaningful public engagement on legislation that will significantly affect the education sector.
"There has been no meaningful public sensitisation on the content and implications of these Bills before the public was asked to submit views," the union said in a statement.
The six Bills are the Tertiary Education, Placement and Funding Bill, Basic Education Bill, Kenya National Educational Assessments Council Bill, Pre-Service Education and In-Service Training Bill, Kenya National Qualifications Framework (Amendment) Bill and Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (Amendment) Bill.
Kuppet has also raised concerns over the location of some venues where the forums have been held or are scheduled, saying they are far from some of the communities whose views are being sought, particularly in rural and marginalised areas.
The union argues that this could exclude parents, teachers and students who lack the means to travel to the designated venues.
It has further questioned whether the Bills are anchored in a sufficiently clear policy framework, warning that legislation could face implementation challenges if policy gaps are not resolved before enactment.
"The matters being proposed in the Bills are weighty and require proper review before the proposals undergo the legal processes," Kuppet said.
"Debating detailed law before underlying policy is settled risks locking in structures and funding models that a future policy may later contradict, forcing costly amendments soon after the law takes effect."
Questions over tertiary funding
Kuppet has called on Parliament to provide a clear financial roadmap for the proposed tertiary education funding system, including how it will be financed, the timeline for implementation and the source of the required resources.
"Without this, we risk unfunded mandates and implementation failure from the onset," the union said.
The Tertiary Education, Placement and Funding Bill, 2026 proposes a universal higher education admissions and financing model that would provide guaranteed loan support to all students.
The proposed Tertiary Education Funding Authority (TEFA) would be established through the merger of the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB), the Universities Fund and the TVET Funding Board.
This would mark a shift from the current student-centred funding model, under which learners receive loans and government scholarships based on their level of need.
The government has said the proposed model will be supported through diversified revenue sources, including government grants, capital markets, bonds, pension funds and voluntary parental savings.
However, Kiambu Senator Karungo Thang'wa has questioned whether the Bill adequately incorporates recommendations by the Presidential Working Party on Education Reform aimed at protecting vulnerable learners.
Thang'wa said the proposed fund relies heavily on loans and does not provide sufficient protection against high repayment obligations for graduates, including deductions of up to 25 per cent.
"The principle was simple; the poorer the child, the smaller the debt," he said, referring to the working party's proposal that students from poor households receive 82 per cent scholarship support and 18 per cent loans.
"The loan-only plan now proposed makes it 100 per cent loan. The poorest child's debt jumps the most," he said.
The senator said the working party had proposed a budget line for University Students Scholarships and envisaged the tertiary education fund providing both loans and grants.
He argued that although the Bill retains the name of the proposed fund, it provides for education loans without establishing a dedicated scholarship fund or guaranteed allocation for vulnerable students.
"Same fund. Same name. But the word 'grants' is gone. To be fair, the word 'scholarship' still appears. But look for the rest, you will not find it. There is no scholarship fund, no dedicated source of scholarship money, and no categories of need.
"There's no guaranteed share for the vulnerable child, and none for the extremely needy child," Thang'wa said.
He also questioned who would bear the financial risk if graduates fail to secure employment and therefore cannot meet their repayment obligations.
Dispute over Junior school autonomy
The public participation exercise has also highlighted differences between Kuppet and the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) over the proposed management structure for Junior schools.
Kuppet wants Junior schools to have full autonomy and an independent leadership structure, while Knut has backed the comprehensive school model under which Early Childhood Development, primary and Junior schools operate under one management structure.
The Basic Education Bill, 2026, seeks to give legal backing to the comprehensive school arrangement rather than leave it as an administrative policy that could be reversed.
The government intends to roll out the comprehensive school arrangement from the next financial year, while the proposed tertiary funding model is expected to take effect during the September intake.
These timelines have added urgency to the public participation process.
Another issue raised during the exercise is corporal punishment, with some parents calling for its reintroduction while the Bill retains provisions criminalising the practice.
Teachers have also called for the classification of corporal punishment as a criminal offence to be removed, arguing that the provision in its current form could expose them to legal action.
The committee is scheduled to hold public participation forums on Friday in Meru, Narok, Kajiado and Kirinyaga counties.
