- Usawa Agenda executive director Emmanuel Manyasa urges the ministry to place the 12-15-year-old learners in subcounty day schools.
- PS Fatma Chege says school principals who find themselves with learners from both curricula will manage the JSS learners and those in Form 1 to Form 4.
Image: CHARLENE MALWA
The plan to get rid of boarding schools in junior secondary has received a boost after an education lobby group backed the idea.
The ongoing debate about how students will be placed in the respective schools has also brought to fore the issue of 12-15 year olds being in boarding schools.
In the 8-4-4 system, at this age learners would be in Class 7 and 8. However, in the CBC system, the learners at this age will enrol in junior secondary.
Usawa Agenda boss Emmanuel Manyasa said the pupils are too young and need to be close to parents.
Manyasa made the suggestion at a regional conference to mark five years since the launch of CBC.
He suggested pupils be sent to subcounty schools, which are all day institutions.
“It would be very important that these children are not sent to the bigger schools that are far away from home,” Manyasa said.
The lobbyist added that the aspect of parental guidance for the teenagers might be lost, if the learners are taken to boarding schools.
Manyasa urged the government to invest in the subcounty schools, which might host junior secondary students, if the proposal is adopted.
“Children can commute, and if they are not able then they can be in a closer boarding school that every weekend they are allowed to go home,” Manyasa said.
This is even as Curriculum Reforms and Implementation PS Fatma Chege said the learners will preferably be placed in day schools.
Chege was addressing the Catholic schools principals’ conference at Catholic University of East Africa.
“We want to even encourage public schools that are boarding to set up a day wing for use by the CBC learners,” Chege said.
By domiciling junior learners in primary school, Chege said, does not mean they fall under primary category.
"Things have changed and we are saying as much as possible this should be a wing that should be fully day," she said.
She said school principals who find themselves in this situation will manage both the junior learners and Form 1 to Form 4.
“I have talked to parents and most of them are very willing to continue in the same schools taking them in the day wing and seeing them every day,” Chege said.
She said the ministry has started finding primary schools that are closer to the secondary wing and can host junior schools.
“We have been using the GIS and we can see that some primary sections are only separated by a fence from the secondary wing. That’s one step,” she added.
While commissioning CBC classrooms at Moi Educational Center in June, Education CS George Magoha asked the primary section to retain learners.
Magoha gave the school principal an ultimatum of three weeks to ensure the classes are CBC compliant.
“These children can’t be carrying all their belongings back home everyday. They need storage cabinets in their classes,” he said.
While addressing private schools officials in Mombasa on Tuesday, Magoha said CBC classrooms will be domiciled in secondary school.
However, for primary schools that have enough space, Magoha said the institutions will be identified to host JSS.
“There is still some space in those primary schools to be utilised but this will still fall in secondary school,” the CS said.
The pioneer cohort of CBC, currently in Grade 6, is expected to join junior secondary next year.
According to the ministry, 2.57 million students will be enrolled for Grade 7 and Form 1 during the double intake in January.
-Edited by SKanyara