Grade 9 classrooms that are expected to be constructed over the next three months will cost Sh. 18.8 billion.
This is according to the Cabinet Secretary in the Ministry of Education Julius Ogamba. The classrooms are expected to take in children moving into Grade 9 in January 2025.
“We are supposed to do 16, 000 classrooms. We have already released money for all of them. Sh. 11 billion has been released for 11, 000 classes, while Sh. 7.8 billion was released to National Government CDF for 5, 000 classrooms,” said CS Ogamba.
In late September 2024, CS Ogamba stated that the first phase of 3,500 classrooms at a cost of Sh. 3.5 billion were at 70 per cent completion. The second phase of 7,500 classrooms at a cost of Sh. 7.5 billion were scheduled to be completed in December.
The decision to domicile junior school in primary schools instead of secondary schools has been widely criticized teachers’ unions.
Around 10,000 secondary schools across the country will have to figure out what to do with classes that will become empty once the Form Four class exits after the KCSE exams in November.
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According to Akello Misori, the secretary-general of the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET), the decision to domicile junior school in primary schools is a “disaster and a wrong experiment”.
“It was not well-thought out and the transition in January will be clumsy. It was a populist decision and we thought the government would prepare well. At the end of Grade Nine, learners in public schools will be ill-equipped for study in senior school. Only learners in private schools will be ready,” said Misori.
“Sub-county schools are lying fallow. We have qualified and specialized teachers in those schools but those in junior school are struggling. We should take Grade 9 out of primary schools because that environment isn’t suitable for junior school learning.”
