Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha has announced that CBC children who will be sitting their national examinations to join junior secondary schools this year will remain in their current primary schools.
Magoha also asked parents who have kids in private schools not to move them in order to avoid adding to the stress of running public junior secondary schools.
He pointed out that the government is planning to place Grade 7 learners in private schools during the selection of secondary schools, as opposed to the current practice where learners are only placed in public schools.
“It would be very important for the parents who already have their children in private schools to retain them in junior secondary facilities that are established within those schools so that the cut-throat competition that comes after standard eight be postponed to year 10,” said Magoha.
According to Magoha, learners remaining in private schools will reduce the stiff competition that is witnessed when the transition to secondary school happens.
The implementation of the CBC has been widely criticized. For instance, with only six months left before the transition, parents and teachers are still in the dark over the criteria of placing students in junior secondary. However, the government has remained adamant that the new system shall stay in place.
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“We are almost completing that process. The children are going to apply and we’ll tell them the number of schools that are available. We encourage the private schools which we’ll say are ready for junior secondary to allow the children apply on the public platform so that they are placed,” Magoha said.
The January double intake of 8-4-4 Form 1 and CBC Grade 7 learners is likely to create a shortfall of 1,489,144 places in secondary schools. With the recommended class size of between 45 and 50 students, these would require 29,783 more classrooms.
According to the Kenya Private Schools Association chair Charles Ochome, only 1,290 are new private classrooms have been completed so far.