Immediate Nyeri County Director of Education Sabina Aroni is the new Central Region Director of Education.
Aroni who began her career as High School teacher before being appointed as a District Education Officer in 1999 has taken over from Elizabeth Otieno who has been moved to the Ministry of Education Headquarters in Nairobi.
She takes over the regional docket at a time the government is pushing for a 100 per cent transition for both Junior Secondary School (JSS) and the Form One admissions.
Previously Aroni had served in Elgeyo Marakwet and Kisumu between 2012 and 2018 as a County Director of Education before she was transferred to Nyeri in the same capacity.
While addressing the press in her office Wednesday Aroni said her immediate task is to continue pushing for the government policy in ensuring all those who sat for the Kenya Certificate of Primary of Education (KCPE) and the Kenya Primary School Education (KPSEA) transit to their respective classes.
She says in her new role which will now cover Nyeri, Kirinyaga, Kiambu, Nyandarua and Murang’a counties will incorporate other government agencies to ensure no pupil remains at home for whatever reason since the government has provided all the necessary requirements for learning.
“We are working as a multi-agency team in mopping up all learners supposed to join the Junior Secondary School and Form One and ensure they do so without fail. Currently transition from grade 6 to the Junior Secondary school in Nyeri stands at 98.9 per cent with Kiambu still recording a low figure of 78 per cent. However, the discrepancy may be attributed to transfers of pupils from public to private schools,” she said.
Some 15,781 JSS learners in Nyeri were expected to transit to Grade 7 as the country changes from the 8-4-4 system to the Competency Based Curriculum (CBC).
Some 1,287,579 grade six pupils who sat for the KCPE are believed to have transited to Grade 7 this year in a move which has received accolades and criticism from the public and other stakeholders in equal measure.
The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) had allocated a total of 396 teachers to be posted to all the 430 JSS in Nyeri with a capacity to hold all the 13,000 pupils.
Over all a total of 15,781 Grade Six candidates drawn from both public and private schools from Nyeri sat for their KPSEA last year.
Earlier on, the Education official had pointed out that a number of schools were yet to agree on the type of uniform to be worn by the learners and allowed the pupils to adorn their old uniforms until they strike a consensus.
“Most of the Junior Secondary Schools we have visited have already agreed on the kind of uniforms to be worn by the learners. On the other hand, those who had not bought the uniforms by Monday during reporting said they will wait until they have a participatory process so that the parents and children don’t say the uniforms were dictated,” she said.
She has also refuted allegations of parents being asked to pay any money before their children can be admitted to school and reiterated the government stand warning school heads against levying any extra fee on JSS learners as their tuition fee had been catered for in full.
The government is paying Sh15,000 annually for each of the 1.2 million JSS learners currently enrolled in public schools.
“We have directed parents to take their children to schools they can afford since the government has paid tuition fees for both boarding students and Day Secondary Schools. Nobody should cite inability to pay school fees or buy a uniform as a basis for not taking his or her child to school. If a parent cannot take her child to a boarding school due to challenges of getting school fees, let him take him to the nearby Day Secondary School,” she had advised.
Last week the Cabinet Secretary for Education Mr. Ezekiel Machogu directed all field officers to enforce the Government’s guidelines in regard to the gazette school fees after receiving complaints that some headteachers and principals were imposing extra costs on parents.
The CS also directed anyone with a complaint over any illegal levy to have forwarded such information to the Ministry by Friday last week.
By Samuel Maina and Vyette Kimani
