INMATES TO GET QUALITY FORMAL EDUCATION – CORRECTIONAL PS
By Martha Munyambu
The State Department for Correctional Services is planning to collaborate with other Ministries, Department, Agencies and stakeholders to boost education in correctional institutions across the Country.
Speaking in Murang'a Prison Command, State Department for Correctional Services Principal Secretary Ms. Salome M. Beacco indicated that the inmates have expressed a desire to get both formal and informal education to enable them to get valid academic certificates, which will help them reintegrate back to the society after they complete their sentences.
The PS indicated that last year Kenya Prison Service trained 57 teachers equipping them with skills in Competency-Based Curriculum.
Ms. Beacco pointed out that the Department is working on establishing science laboratories and computer labs fully equipped with assorted furniture to enable the inmates to get quality formal education to enable them access employment once they finish their jail terms.
She noted the State Department is partnering with the State Department for Industry and the State Department for Technical and Vocational Educational and Training to improve, expand and equip the existing workshops to boost vocational training in all the correctional institutions across the country.
The PS further indicated that the State Department will work closely with National Industrial Training Authority (NITA) for inmates to sit for their trade test for proper certification.
"We are happy to see that the inmates are actively engaged in vocational training to enable them to acquire skills that would be useful to them when they leave prison", said the PS.
Ms. Beacco pleaded with the general public to accord the inmates a second chance and employ them once they are set free, saying that the inmates are fully reformed and have the required skills.
"Employ them so that all the rehabilitation work done during their stay in prison would not to go waste", she said
The PS called upon the members of the public to support the Prison enterprise by buying the products made by inmates.
Edited by Humphrey Young and Pili Chimerah
Photo by: Patrick Ambani