Junior School (JS) teachers want the government to grant the JS stage of education full autonomy, separate from the Primary and secondary schools.
They took the fight to the president last week at State House Girls from where they requested him to make JS independent of Primary and secondary school levels of education.
“Almost 80% of the teachers I have hired are in junior school. The problem is that you are reporting to headteachers of primary school. I see the quagmire you are pushing me, but I think you have a point,” the Press quoted the president as saying.
Junior School teachers are not the first to consider the appropriateness or otherwise of having an autonomous authority to manage the Junior School stage of education.
The Ministry of Education initially considered its plausibility of making JS independent following the recommendations by the Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms (PWPER) which was chaired by Prof. Raphael Munavu.
Among the recommendations PWPER made was that the government consider domiciling grades 7,8 and 9 in Primary School level, but its name be changed to Junior School. This would cover ECD, Primary and Junior school and be named Comprehensive School.
During the public hearings PWPER held around the country, stakeholders expressed two concerns about domiciling learners in grade 7 in secondary school (the emphasis is deliberate).
The first concern was the inadequate capacity of secondary schools to accommodate the 2022 grade six learners and KCPE candidates. It was clear that secondary schools couldn’t admit the two cohorts of students because of inadequate infrastructure—classrooms, laboratories, sanitary facilities, hostels, and others.
The second concern was the safety of 12- and 13-year-olds amidst teenagers, who were comparatively much older than them. They feared that they could be bullied.
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PWPER favourably considered the reservations. It accordingly recommended in the first interim report to the President that grade 7 be domiciled in the Primary stage of schooling. It, however, recommended that grades 8 and 9 be similarly domiciled in the Primary stage of schooling.
The recommendation created a totally different kettle of fish the government faced.
Give it to the technocrats in the education ministry. They considered creating an independent governing system for JS to run Junior Schools from within the same territorial authority of the Primary School.
They, however, predicted conflicts between the authority of the Primary School and that of the newly created JS authority should JS be autonomous.
They cited cases of conflicts between the authorities of Primary schools and that of Secondary Schools which shared the same facilities—gates, ablution blocks, playground for co-curricular activities. It would also have been more costly for the government to create independent authorities for JS.
Consequently, the Ministry settled on the current status quo.
Regrettably, nobody envisaged the turf wars that would ensue between Primary School teachers and their JS counterparts.
Let me explain the policy rationale behind the JS stage of education, which is perhaps the most critical feature of the CBE system of Education.
Three years designated as Junior school is critical to the education of children in many ways. It is a time young people at this age are experiencing puberty, when growth and development is more rapid than any other developmental stages. A time of anxiety. A time of asking questions about who they are. A time when the mind is seething to understand the big questions about themselves and the environment.
This is the stage of the curriculum, the educational experience of the school must be more academically demanding than the corresponding grades under the 8.4.4 system of education. Plainly, curriculum in grades six going forward must be sequentially more rigorous and coherent— a curriculum that is challenging to learners to think critically. In tandem with their developmental stages.
The hostile relationship between the teachers of the Primary wing and teachers in JS is bad. It is compromising the pedagogical rigour and composure required to deliver this curriculum.
They say that when elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers.
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What should be done?
In my view, the misgivings the education ministry held about a JS independent of Primary and secondary schools still hold.
First, it is not cost-effective to create one. It will be expensive.
Second, creating a JS system independent of primary will not address the impasse. The authorities in Primary and JS will still fight over school infrastructure: playing field for co-curricular activities, and others.
The alternative is to find separate grounds for all the JS schools—more than 20,000 of them—to build classrooms, and other infrastructure, away from the boundaries of the primary school.
This is my proposal. The government could find a compromise. Reduce the administrative load on primary school headteachers by considering the domiciling of grades 8 and 9 in secondary school. Secondly, retain grade 7 in Primary and retool Primary school teachers to deliver the curriculum at that grade. Education experts say that Primary school teachers have the necessary training to handle content of grade 7.
Alternatively, domicile grade 9 in secondary school.
The government will optimize the educational and other resources that exist in secondary schools whichever of this option it adopts.
We have classrooms with modern facilities, laboratories, and playgrounds. We have highly experienced graduate teachers there. Children at these developmental stages need older wine to impart the prescribed and experiential knowledge most teachers at this level, have acquired over the years.
Let some of the JS teachers move to secondary schools—where the learners will be.
If the suggestion is plausible, the government may think about the following questions. Why not have the placement examinations or assessment in grade 8—and let it be used to transit the learners to grade 9, now domiciled in secondary school? Why not have two placement examinations initially, should the government, in its wisdom, think of domiciling grade 8 and 9 in secondary school, as I have suggested?
What is important here is the enhanced rigour and delivery of the content in grade 7, 8, and 9—not where it is being delivered.
Some training is also required. You don’t necessarily have to report to a boss who is equal or more educated than you. In the 70s and 80s, we had graduate teachers whose headmasters were diploma holders. The world skies didn’t fall down on them.
A policy is never cast in stone. To quote Phil McGraw: “Sometimes you make the right decision, sometimes you make the decision right.”
By Kennedy Buhere
Communication Specialist
0725327611
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