By Kipkemboi Toroitich
Education Cabinet Secretary (CS) Prof George Magoha has asked parents with children in private primary schools to keep them there for junior secondary (JSS) when it is rolled out in January 2023.
Yet this depends on availability of infrastructure in those schools as most of them have no plans for learners beyond primary education.
The CS’s request comes amid fears that the double intake of the second last group of 8-4-4 and the first Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) cohort will overwhelm public schools next year. It is projected that the intake will overshoot by 1.5 million.
“Retaining CBC learners in their respective private schools will avert the looming crisis of overpopulating public schools. There has always been a stiff competition for places in public secondary schools,” said Prof Magoha at Moi Educational Centre in Nairobi, where he visited to gauge the preparedness of private schools for junior secondary.
For some time now, the government has dithered on the role of private schools in the CBC roll-out, focusing instead on developing infrastructure in public schools. So far, only 6,000 of the targeted 10,000 classrooms have been completed.
Private schools have been slow to expand their infrastructure to accommodate the Grade 7 learners. There are a meagre 1,200 classes constructed out of a target of 5,000.
To mitigate the challenges of space, the government is also planning to place the two groups of candidates in private schools, much the same way it places students in private universities. This is a radical shift from the routine placement in public schools for children from both private and public schools.
The competition for public secondary schools is rife as both categories of schools converge for space; parents having preferred taking their children to private institutions for a good foundation. The reverse happens on transition to secondary with the fight for space shifting to public secondary, which have better facilities than their private counterparts.
