Kenya primary schools to host secondary students
Students in junior secondary schools coming into place next year in Kenya’s new curriculum will be hosted in existing primary schools amid a shortage of facilities and teachers, the authorities have announced.
It came as more than 1.2 million candidate students in grade six concluded their final assessment tests unsure of their fate.
There have been concerns about their transition to the next school level since existing secondary schools do not have extra space to accommodate them.
The secondary schools can only take in students who have completed primary school under the old curriculum – who have also just finished sitting their final exams.
Under the new curriculum, students complete primary school at grade six (about 11-12 years) while in the older curriculum, students have been proceeding to secondary school after doing their class eight final exams at 13-14 years.
But the transition to a secondary school under the new curriculum appears to face several hurdles, including the lack of classroom infrastructure and a shortage of teachers.
In an announcement on Thursday, a task force on the implementation of the new curriculum recommended that junior secondary school students (grades six to nine) study in existing primary schools and share some of the facilities in neighboring secondary schools.
Kenya primary schools to host secondary students
The education ministry is expected to build additional classrooms and a laboratory in each of the primary schools within the next year.
The government is also set to recruit an additional 30,000 teachers by January next year to bridge the teacher shortage.
