Teachers in Kiambu County have joined the nationwide call for the autonomy of the junior schools.
They said yesterday that they would want the Ministry of Education to review how the junior school should be run, treating their teachers and students.
The tutors decried that placing junior schools inside comprehensive schools risks diluting their identity, stalling teacher growth, and lowering education standards.
Kiambu county JS secretary general Maureen Makena said that junior schools must be left to remain independent to protect both learners and teachers.
She said it was only the review of the JS that will help them and rescue the curriculum, which is faced by the already felt challenges.
Makena also argue that treating junior schools as extensions of primary education undermines the value of higher education.
They emphasised that junior school teachers hold the same qualifications as secondary teachers and deserve equal recognition.
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“We are trained just like secondary school teachers and we feel we were not meant to be mixed with primary schools. Our students need to feel a transition” she said.
The tutors also said that the junior schools were not meant to be in comprehensive schools, but in secondary schools.
A teacher Peter Kimani said they should have a head teacher who is independent rather than reporting to the one in a comprehensive school.
“A student who used who used to be a certain comprehensive schools joins a junior schools in the same compound and reports to the same head teacher. They too need to feel progressing, the transition motivates learners,” Kimani said.
“The challenges which we are talking about are being felt countrywide. The ministry of education should not wait any longer, but it should move with speed to review it,” he added.
Other county officials present at the meeting which was attended by the junior school teachers included Bernard Kimani, Jared ongwenyi, Sharon Muthoni Njenga and Tabitha Gathoni.
By Felix Wanderi
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