As schools, learners, and guardians gear up for the first term of the education calendar, they have been assured of adequate classrooms, books, and teachers.
State Department for Basic Education, Principal Secretary (PS), Dr. Belio Kipsang, says they have been working round-the-clock to ensure a smooth reopening of schools.
The government has constructed additional classrooms in primary schools to accommodate Grade 8 learners transitioning to Junior Secondary Schools (JSS) under the Competency-Based Curriculum.
“As a government, in the last year we have been preparing ourselves so that we transition well,” stated the PS in Mombasa after a meeting with County Directors of Education from the Coast region.
As per the recommendations of the Presidential Working Party on Education Reform, the PS expounded that 93 per cent of Kenyans wanted their children to be in primary schools for Junior Secondary Education.
Since the introduction of CBC in the county in 2017, Dr. Kipsang said the transition has been smooth except for a few challenges which have been surmounted.
“Up to today, we have been able to supply books to every level of learning. From the day we started with Grade One up to Grade Nine. I want to confirm that Grade Nine books have all been printed; 9.9 million books have been printed,” stated the PS.
He added that 85 per cent of schools have already received the books, and distribution is ongoing in the remaining 14 per cent of schools.
On classrooms, the government has so far constructed 13,200 classrooms against a target of 16,000.
Out of the constructed classrooms, legislators through the National Government-Constituency Development Fund (NG-CDF) constructed 3,100, while the Ministry of Education did 10,100.
“We still have almost 2,800 classrooms at various levels of construction. There will also be a few schools where the enrolment was low, but they still need a classroom,” highlighted the PS.
The Ministry, he revealed, had a target of 11,000 classrooms, which will be completed before schools open. The NG-CDF had a target of 6800.
“We are pushing CDF; for them, they have a different process in terms of approval before they start off the work,” he stated.
On teachers, he said that the Teachers Service Commission has recruited 20,000 intern Teachers whilst 46,000 Intern Teachers were converted to Permanent and Pensionable terms.
“As we talk today, we have more than 80,000 teachers in our Junior Schools to be able to take care of our kids. We are aware that what we require is more than 140,000, but as we progress, we should ensure that all these teachers that are required by our learners are available for them.”
He added that schools have put in place adequate measures for learning to continue unabated.
By Sadik Hassan
