Graduate primary school teachers can also teach the two grades.
These grades can be domiciled in existing primary schools and provisions made to build labs and extra rooms.
We can also have them in secondary schools that share a compound with primary schools.
These ones are in a position to even share teaching resources and things like labs.
And, finally, we can have stand-alone JSSs that are established and registered.
When we made national and extra-county schools available for junior secondary, we faltered somewhat because there is then no other way of determining who goes to national schools unless through an examination.
The only saving grace is that junior secondary is general, hence learners have not chosen their pathways.
I believe we ought to correct this and embrace proximity. I believe it's doable.
It is important to note that we are paying for the mistake of 1985: creating a long primary cycle. We will need patience in the next two years, but it is doable.
It is important to note secondary schooling is the level that produces the critical mass of skilled labour, which is what powers the transition from factor-driven to investment-driven economies.
Just for context, look at the Asian tigers.
The prosperity of countries like Singapore is attributed in part to the success of universal secondary education while the difficulties of some like Thailand in the 1990s are attributed to failure to achieve universal secondary education.
Lastly, we need to separate the curriculum and other challenges.
We have always had overcrowded classrooms and teacher shortages. These are not issues caused by CBC.
We have to deal with them without looking for a scapegoat.
Finally, let us embrace composite schools. Eighteen--year-olds and three-years-olds can learn in the same compound. It happens here in international schools, and there is no bullying.
Bullying is an aspect of parenting and discipline and we need to deal with why it is so rampant instead of saying that at 13 children are better able to withstand bullying than when they are 11. How about we eradicate it?
Head of secretariat, Kenya Association of International Schools
