Rate of transition from primary to secondary school currently stands at 93 per cent
Image: FILE
The World Vision has blamed congestion and poor educational standards in schools on the huge number of admissions to the institutions.
World Vision associate director Elijah Bonyo on Tuesday said most secondary schools increased their enrolments beyond their capacity following the government’s effort to ensure 100 per cent transition from primary schools.
“Most schools have crowded classrooms and dormitories. The quality of education continues to be a concern. There are schools that have a shortage of classrooms resulting in overcrowding of learners during lessons while some do not have enough teachers," Bonyo said.
He said the problems coupled with inadequate teacher preparation and minimal parental support to school programmes were affecting the delivery of quality basic education services.
Bonyo spoke during a breakfast meeting with journalists to reflect on the progress towards the realisation of the rights of the child as they marked the International Human Rights Day in Nairobi.
He said schools now have to share Sh1.2 billion to develop facilities compared to Sh1.5 billion they got in the last financial year. The reduction follows cuts made by Parliament on allocation for infrastructure.
The transition rate to secondary schools currently stands 93 per cent.
This means less than 100,000 students who sat for their Kenya Certificate of Primary Education exam in 2018 were not admitted to secondary schools.
According to Kenya Secondary Heads Association chairman Indimuli Kahi, some classrooms have up to 60 or 70 students.
He said school heads cannot create extra streams because of the inadequate number of teachers.
Bonyo applauded county governments that have improved infrastructure in the pre-primary schools, provision of teaching and learning materials, provision of school feeding programmes, remuneration and capacity development of pre-primary school teachers.
edited by p. obuya