Some sponsor churches in the North Rift have joined the debate on where Junior Secondary School (JSS) should be domiciled, suggesting it moves to secondary school.
Bishop Paul Korir of the Kapsabet ACK Diocese says secondary schools have enough infrastructure to accommodate JSS as compared to primary schools.
Speaking in Kapsabet town, he said this wil also help save billions of funds allocated to the construction of Grade 9 classrooms across the country.
“Secondary schools have better and enough classrooms. As sponsors of several schools in this region, we would like to ask the government to consider having JSS in secondary schools,” he said, underscoring the need to recruit additional teachers as the teacher-learner ratio is far below expectation.
“Our schools are greatly understaffed going by the high population of learners. This is worrying and we hereby appeal for the hiring and posting of more teachers to our schools,” he observed.
Bishop Korir also appealed for the commencement of mental health campaigns, stating that the rising cases of mental illness in the country has reached alarming levels.
“Cases of mental health problems have become a major challenge in this region. When a phone rings and somebody just looks at the phone without answering, that indicates that person is having mental issues. To address this problem, we must urgently establish mental health campaigns,” said Korir.
The sponsors further want the government to consult them in decision making, especially relating to the running of schools, in order to avert disputes as witnessed in some schools in the region.
The government seeks to construct at least 16,000 classrooms for Grade 9 by January 2025, and has allocated Ksh3.4 billion for the work.
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By Kimutai Lang’at
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