Secondary school principals, parents and teachers have raised concerns over the high number of students to be admitted this year.
They say sustainability of the 100 per cent transition from primary schools is at stake. The government wants all pupils who sat this year’s KCPE exam admitted.
National school selection begins today. The exercise will proceed to the regional level on Wednesday.
Being the second of its kind, this year’s selection and placement will increase secondary school populations from the current 2.79 million learners to about 3.8 million.
The process will be carried out in 10 regions — North Rift, Mombasa, South Rift, Kisumu, Kakamega, Metropolitan, Central, Machakos, Garissa and Meru.
Principals say the huge number could cause a crisis as the measures put in place to support 100 per cent transition is at variance with the actual numbers expected.
Their concerns include congestion, inadequate staff, lack of laboratories and boarding facilities.
In the past 12 months, the government has improved infrastructure in 864 institutions. The goal was to make more room for the huge admissions. It focussed on boarding facilities, classrooms, dining halls and laboratories.
In the last financial year, the Education ministry built 700 classrooms in secondary schools.
According to ministry guidelines, a standard classroom should accommodate 40 students. This means the new classes can hold only 28,000 new learners.
Some 989 new secondary schools have been built in the last one year, pushing the number of schools to 10,655 from 9,966.
The head teachers’ grievances are supported by Auditor General Edward Ouko’s 2018 report, which reveals congestion in most schools.
Kenya Secondary School Heads Association chairperson Indimuli Kahi yesterday said schools expected to carry the bulk of admission will suffer because of limited resources.
Classes will have more students than the recommended 40 and this will interfere with the teacher-student ratio, he said.
“Most schools have a big challenge. Some classrooms have up to 60 or 70 students after last year’s admission, instead of the recommended 40. School heads can’t create extra streams because of inadequate number of teachers,” Kahi said on the phone. The Teachers Service Commission this year recruited an additional 7,000 teachers to handle the high admission.
Kenya National Union of Teachers secretary general Wilson Sossion yesterday said the number of teachers is far much lower than the recommended figure and this will hurt learning.
Kenya Parents Association chairman Nicholas Maiyo urged the government to ensure admission does not compromise the quality of education. He called for more investment in the schools.