There is no doubt that there is a lot of confusion in the implementation of CBC’s Junior Secondary School (JSS). The current disagreement between the two giant teacher – KNUT and KUPPET – only adds to the whole confusion. The debate has been, and still is, whether JSS should be domiciled in primary or secondary school.
I have previously held the stand that this section remains in primary school for a while but progressively moves to secondary school. What I mean is that the present grade 7, who are in primary school learning in a classroom left by those who have moved to standard 8, will be in grade 8 in a classroom vacated by those who will have moved to form 1 in 2024. In 2025, they should move to grade 9 in secondary school to occupy the classroom vacated by those who will have moved to form 2 and so on and so forth.
After thinking for quite a while now, I have observed three very important things. One, there are quite a number of classrooms in secondary schools, especially those that were built under the late indefatigable Professor Magoha, simply unoccupied. Two, the teachers in secondary schools are specifically trained to teach secondary school learners. Three, our secondary schools have a laboratory and other facilities that these learners need.
When we have most of our grade 7 classrooms bursting at the seams, should we be having any unoccupied classrooms anywhere? And again, when we have the grade 7 learners going on untaught due to insufficient teachers, why shouldn’t we take them to secondary schools where they will be taught by the ones who are there. Why should we be thinking of building of labs in the primary schools when we can use those in the secondary schools?
These, among other things, lead me to propose that JSS should be domiciled both in primary and secondary schools.
The Ministry of Education should urgently audit both primary and secondary schools to find out those that have the capacity to host JSS. The whole exercise should be preferably done and completed this term so that by next tem real learning starts.
I have learnt with happiness that the KPSEA examination that the current Grade 7 learners did last year has been marked and the results are now available.
I propose that these results be used to place the learners in the secondary schools that they chose. Those pupils who chose the secondary schools that can accommodate them right away should be moved there next term.
By Enock Shirandula
The writer is a retired educationist, a Kabarasi language reviewer of Kabarasi BTL Project and author of ‘So Different She Was’ emshirandula@yahoo.com
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