Nyeri Town Constituency MP, Duncan Maina Mathenge, conducted a tour of the Nyamachaki Primary and Junior Secondary School to evaluate their preparedness for admitting Grade 9 learners.
The lawmaker, who was accompanied by the Nyeri County Director of Education Ms. Jane Njogu and the Nyeri Central subcounty Director of Education Rose Boyo, also presided over the handing over of eight new classrooms for Junior Secondary School (JSS) pupils to help ease congestion at the institution that has a total of 2,100 learners.
Four of the classes will host Grade eight learners while the four will host Grade 9 students.
President Dr William Ruto had personally injected Sh10 million into the construction of the classes while the rest of the funding was sourced from the World Bank through the Kenya Primary Education Equity in Learning Program (KPEELP) initiative.
“We are teaming up with officers from the County Director of Education and her team to monitor how prepared we are with Grade 9 learners, completion of the classes and also the provision of textbooks to cover Grade 9 syllabus.
This morning, we have already covered three schools; DEB Muslim Primary and Junior School, Temple Road Primary and Junior School and Nyamachaki Primary and Junior School. We have the four classes ready and the students are in class,” he told reporters on Tuesday on the sidelines of the tour.
Maina has also clarified that out of the 43 schools within the Constituency currently offering JSS, only two are receiving funding from the CDF kitty to erect classes for Grade 9 learners.
Construction of classes in the remaining 41 schools is being funded by the Government through KPEELP.
The lawmaker also lauded the Government for providing additional teachers in the Constituency to address current needs due to the new Grade 9 students and further appealed to the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to expedite the process of posting additional tutors to seal existing learning gaps.
In particular, the lawmaker said the high number of learners at Nyamachaki Primary and Junior School had forced some structural adjustment to the design of the facility owing to limited space.
This year alone the school has admitted a total of 250 learners in the Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE) up from 100 pupils last year.
“This School has a unique challenge as it sits on exactly half an acre and the room for expansion is very limited. The only space available for this school is to move upwards and therefore we sat with the Ministry of Public Works and agreed the existing buildings should go upwards and up to now the four classes are ready to be used.
The old structure has only staircases but the school is integrated and has students with disabilities. We have to adjust the structural drawings so that the school is disability friendly,” he said.
“We are delighted to confirm that Nyeri Town Constituency and indeed Nyeri County is ready for Grade 9 and everything is in place.”
At least 1.3 million Grade 8 learners countrywide are expected to move to Grade 9 from yesterday becoming the pioneer cohort of the learners under the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC).
In June last year, the Ministry of Education said that 11,000 classrooms to host the students will be constructed with support from development partners while 7,000 would be constructed with funding from the National Government Constituency Development Fund.
By Samuel Maina
