The government has continued to enforce its 100 per cent transition policy, which stipulates that every child enrols in primary school and successfully completes secondary school.
Premised on the Basic Education Act, any parent who is a Kenyan citizen or whose child resides in Kenya must enrol them fort secondary education.
While well intended, the policy need review to address genuine concerns by parents, the students themselves and education stakeholders.
Not all are cut for the formal and rigid secondary education and many would after their primary schooling opt to pursue craft courses like carpentry, plumbing, tailoring, masonry and the like.
Such students should be allowed to pursue this line but continue to be taught subjects like English and maths to help improve on their communication and entrepreneurship skills.
While national and county schools enjoy the benefit of cut off admissions, the sub-county schools carry the burden of the 100 per cent transition and are forced to admit students with as low as 100 marks.
This demotivates the teachers and impacts on performance as the schools as seen as dumping grounds. The schools should equally be allowed to have cut off entry marks to boost quality.
Too much premium is put on university education in Kenyan yet technical training offers ready jobs or avenues for self-employment.
This is the reason why we need to review the 100 percent transition and not force everyone to join a secondary school.
Quote of the day: “Compassion is not weakness, and concern for the unfortunate is not socialism.”
Hubert Humphrey
The former US vice president died on January 13, 1978.
