Why do administrators still favor moving Grade 8 to a secondary school?

The Ministry of Education has been requested by principals to divide junior secondary school students between primary and secondary schools.

Students from grades 7 through 9 attend junior secondary school, which was established under the Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) last year. Primary schools have a rough start to the new framework.

Principals now urge students in grades 8 and 9 to transfer to secondary schools.

At the Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Association’s (Kessha) annual conference in Mombasa County yesterday, the principals gave a speech.

According to the head teachers, secondary schools, as opposed to basic schools, already have facilities like laboratories.

Principals have pleaded with the State to let students to transfer to secondary schools because they are concerned about the inadequate readiness at primary schools.

essential infrastructure

“We are not even close to being primary schools. We have teachers, labs, classrooms, and other essential infrastructure. According to Willy Kuria, national head of Kessha, “we are not as bad off as primary schools.”

According to the present plan, students will only spend three years in senior school after spending 11 years in pre-primary, primary, and junior school.

Junior school was meant to be housed in high schools according to the original Basic Education Curriculum Framework.

However, the administration changed its mind after considering the Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms’ proposals.

Will the youngster develop in those three years to be prepared for college? Where are the resources to allow a youngster to attend elementary school for eleven years (a lesser evil)? questioned Mr. Kuria.

“The current infrastructure, which includes the laboratories and classrooms, will be idle as there won’t be a Form One class in the next year. The students in Grade 9 can be accommodated in the classes. We have enough personnel and room in terms of infrastructure, he stated.

The principal of Murang’a High School stated that after the pupils move to Form 2, the school’s twelve Form One classrooms will be vacant.

Instead of the government preparing to build more classrooms in primary schools, he said, junior school students should use underutilized secondary school classrooms.

Principal of Sabunley Secondary School and Kessha official Abdi Noor stated that junior secondary students shouldn’t be placed in basic schools based solely on their age.

The skills, interests, and career choices of the learner will determine who gets to enter senior school. Students will be able to select from STEM fields—science, technology, engineering, and mathematics—as well as social sciences, the arts, and sports.

Every pathway will provide a different set of courses and educational opportunities that correspond with particular job pathways.

Before formulating its proposals, the 42-member Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms, led by Prof. Raphael Munavu, consulted with parents, educators, religious authorities, school administrators, and other key players in the field of education.

The group was established in 2022.
Ezekiel Machogu, the cabinet secretary for education, has emphasized that Grade 9 students will be taught in elementary schools, despite the State’s pressing need to build additional learning facilities.

Push and pull

Stakeholders have been pulling in different directions over where to put the Grade 9 students.

As the Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms solicited feedback from interested parties, we argued that students need to stay in elementary school for seven years. However, after taking the Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA), students move on to secondary school, where they continue to study CBC, having first encountered it in seventh grade, according to Mr. Kuria.

The Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers, an organization that advocates for secondary school teachers, has previously backed the Kessha viewpoint.

Junior secondary teachers, according to Kenya National Union of Teachers Secretary-General Collins Oyuu, lack the necessary abilities to instruct students, as stated in an interview with The Nation. According to him, Knut is drafting a policy document to decide who ought to remain in junior secondary school.

He requested that the Teachers Service Commission and the Ministry of Education discuss JS.