- Under CBC, boarding facilities will be reserved for a few institutions that will admit learners across the country to pursue senior secondary schools.
- Boarding school is necessitated by, among other issues, the need for better education and to learn to live independently.
Image: FAITH MATETE
Recent spontaneous strikes and suspected arson cases in boarding schools have revived a debate to ban boarding schools in favour of day schools.
The idea was first conceived in 2016 and has since met mixed reactions, with some supporting the idea while another section seeks the status-quo to be maintained.
In 2019, the Ministry of Education inaugurated the Competency-Based Curriculum.
The following year in June 2020, a taskforce was announced to undertake a critical analysis of the national rollout of the CBC and advise the minister on key implementation issues.
At the core of the changes is a strategic plan to transition from basic/primary to tertiary education and training by 2029, including infrastructural and human resource requirements.
Among the proposed changes in the taskforce report was the scrapping of boarding in all (junior) secondary schools.
According to the report, boarding facilities will be reserved for a few institutions that will admit learners across the country to pursue various pathways in senior secondary schools as envisioned under the new system.
The education system dictates learners attend two years in pre-primary education, six in primary, three in junior secondary, three in senior secondary school, and another three in university.
All children leaving Grade 6, at the end of primary education, will be required to enrol in a nearby secondary school for the three-year junior secondary education.
Students will be required to enrol in secondary schools within a radius of about five kilometres from their place of residence.
The recommendation was based on the understanding that most primary schools have a nearby secondary school, making it easier to transition children to available spaces in adjacent facilities.
The proposal to abolish boarding schools is in line with the views of the former Kenya National Union of Teachers secretary general Wilson Sossion, who argues that boarding schools have outlived their usefulness.
The Kenya Secondary School Heads Association chairman Indimuli Kahi says the need for boarding school is necessitated by, among other issues, the need for better education and to learn to live independently.
He says boarding school students enjoy more than double the time in school with teachers, coaches, and staff members outside class than day school students.
However, Kahi argues that despite the benefits boarding school provide, long isolation of children from society makes it harder for them to learn and appreciate their culture, relationships and bond with their families.
"The role of the family in a child's formative years cannot be duplicated by an educator," Kahi said.
The National Parents Association chairman Nicholas Maiyo, who supports the existence of boarding schools, however pegs aspects of the misconduct among students to boarding schools.
Maiyo argues that students in boarding schools experience excessive expectations placed by both schools and parents.
"Studies have shown that boarding schools put unnecessary pressure even on the best students and are not, therefore, an ideal place for academically weak students," Maiyo said in a phone interview.
Knut on the other hand faulted a plan to phase out boarding schools, as suggested by some stakeholders.
While responding to the concerns raised by other leaders on whether boarding schools should be phased out in bid to curb fires in schools, Knut secretary general Collins Oyuu said the move might not give a long-lasting solution to the problem.
He said there was need for the Ministry of Education to give a hearing to both teachers and parents and especially through the unions, blaming indiscipline among learners and 100 per cent transitions from primary to secondary education for having played a role in causing school fires and unrests.
"We must accept that indiscipline among students is on the rise and 100 per cent transition has brought children of bad character to schools. Parents are to blame if they cannot not tell teachers the truth about the character of their children during admission and instead defend them even when they are called to school on indiscipline cases," he said.
He cited teacher to students ratio as another reason that might have also contributed to the same.
Oyuu said the number of teachers employed in schools to handle the students despite the 100 per cent transition, limits the impact of teachers, adding that teachers are forced to strain in order to teach the big number of learners.
-Edited by SKanyara