The initial plans by the ministry of education to get rid of boarding schools in junior secondary has received immense support after the idea got backed by an education lobby group.

The current debate on placement criteria for students also came out clear since questions were raised on the possibility of having 12–15-year-old children in boarding schools.

In the just ending 8-4-4 system, learners of this age range would be in Class 7 and 8. However, in the CBC system, the group will be enrolled in junior secondary.

According to Usawa Agenda boss Emmanuel Manyasa, the pupils are too young and need to be close to their parents.

Manyasa made the suggestion at a regional conference to mark five years since the launch of CBC. He maintained that the pupils be sent to subcounty schools, which are all day institutions.

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“It would be very important that these children are not sent to the bigger schools that are far away from home,” Manyasa said.

Further, Manyasa said that the aspect of parental guidance for the teenagers might be lost, if the learners are taken to boarding schools.

He urged the state 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 Fatuma Chege said the learners will preferably be placed in day schools.

The National Education Management Information System (NEMIS) which has served since 2017, is due for replacement since it will be inefficient under the competency-based curriculum, CBC.

As confirmed by officials from the Ministry of Education, the NEMIS system will be abolished because it cannot blend properly with the new curriculum.

As it is Currently NEMIS only assists MOE to know the enrollment in schools so as to inform the ministry’s termly disbursement of government capitation in schools and cannot capture accurate data for learners and educational institutions.

According to State Department for the Implementation of Curriculum Reforms PS Fatuma Chege however, NEMIS does not help in linking data with the new education system.

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Chege has hinted that the government will spend millions of shillings to build a fresh data system to capture learners’ details under the new education curriculum.

“I found issues being raised about NEMIS when I joined the ministry… But we need a new database for our function of monitoring and evaluating learners across the entire education system,”said Chege.

While Knec gives assessment number to monitor learners under Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC), NEMIS gives UPI numbers to same learners.

Chege says they want a system that will be able to monitor learners academically from time they join school to university and this is not possible with NEMIS.

Even though Chege did not state how much the new system would cost, she hinted of a Sh572 million gap to fund a number of activities in her office.

“Our funding request was raised to Sh911.90 million. This leaves us with a deficit of Sh572.60 million,”said Chege.

The development gives a glimpse into the cost of the new curriculum under the 2-6-3-3-3 education system.

Kezzia Wandera,deputy director quality assurance and standards,said NEMIS only aligns itself to primary and secondary education and does not take care of pre-primary, tertiary and university education.

“We would want a one-stop shop of data from pre-primary,all the way to tertiary and universities. This is how we shall be able to holistically execute the mandate we have been assigned,”said Wandera.

According to CBC task force report,each learner should be given a tracking number at Grade 3 after sitting school-based assessments (SBA).

The number,according to the report,will be used to monitor learners progress as they transition in the subsequent education levels.

“This unique number will be used throughout the learners academic life and will be used to track their performance,” said Chege.

The new competency-based curriculum, CBC will not make it compulsory for expectant mothers and candidates admitted in hospitals to sit national exams while undergoing medication or in wards.

The permanent secretary for Curriculum Reforms Fatma Chege said reforms from early childhood and continuous assessments will in such conditions enable an assessment under the Competency-Based Curriculum.

This approach differs with the 8-4-4 system where candidates would be forced to sit KCPE and KCSE exams in hospitals, even if they just delivered, just to avoid sitting the exams later.

“By the time, the child is transitioning from primary to junior secondary, that learner will have been assessed several times,” Chege said.

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She said the continuous assessments conducted from Grade 1 to Grade 6 will be enough to determine a student’s capability.

“By the time, they’re finishing Grade 6, they will have accumulated around 60 per cent of an expected 100 per cent,” Chege said.

According to Chege, the national assessment will allow teachers and the exam council to determine performance.

She emphasised CBC aims to do away with the notion that national exams are do-or-die tests.

“The pressure to sit exams after eight years has been eased out. You find girls in the ward, giving birth, and an exam is waiting for them,” she said.

Education CS prof George Magoha had previously hinted the ministry consults the hospital before administering exams.

“By the time we take exams to that student in hospital, the doctors have assessed the patient and advised if they are fit to sit the papers or not,” Magoha said.

Grade 6 learners are being registered to sit the Kenya Primary School Education Assessment, which will allow their transition to junior secondary.

In January, 1.5 million learners under the new CBC will transition from Grade 6 to junior secondary school.

The junior secondary schools under the CBC’s 2-6-3-3-3 curriculum will have their own separate boards of management. This new development has been revealed by the principal secretary for curriculum reforms, professor Fatuma Chege.

Fatuma Chege confirmed that junior secondary schools will be domiciled in secondary schools and it is only surplus classrooms in primary schools that will be used to host junior secondary schools in case a primary school wants to host junior secondary schools.

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According to Chege, in case a junior secondary school is hosted in a primary school, the junior secondary school will be independent from the primary school and will have a separate board of management from the primary school board of management.

“According to the third conference on education presided over by the president, the president said that Junior secondary schools will be domiciled in secondary schools. That simply means that they will be accommodated in the primary school sub-sector. Being accommodated implies that they do not belong to the primary schools, and must have a separate management from that of primary schools.” Said Chege.

Debate over which schools to host grades 7 and 8 under CBC have rented the air for quite some time, with some stake holders like the kenya national union of teachers fighting for the two classes to be in primary schools while others proposing that they be domiciled in secondary schools.

It is therefore public that primary schools can host secondary school on condition that they have surplus classrooms, which certainly all of them have. With the new statement by Fatuma Chege, it seems like primary schools which will host junior secondary schools will have two boards of management, and certainly to administrative points within the same compound.

Sources have also indicated that there is a likelihood that the primary school students and junior secondary school students within the same compound will have different uniforms, as will be decided by the board and the administration of the junior secondary school section.

The Government is likely to spend millions of shillings to build a fresh data system to capture learners’ details under the new competency-based curriculum.

Fresh details reveal that the National Education Management Information System (NEMIS), in its present design, is unable to accurately capture accurate data for learners and schools. State Department for Implementation of Curriculum Reforms PS Fatuma Chege confirmed to members of parliament that NEMIS it has issues.

“I found issues being raised about NEMIS when I joined the ministry… But we need a new database for our function of monitoring and evaluating learners across the entire education system,” said Chege.  According to Chege, the new system would cost an additional  Sh572 million.

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“Our funding request was raised to Sh911.90 million. This leaves us with a deficit of Sh572.60 million,” said Chege.

This revelation gives some information regarding the cost of Competency-Based Curriculum under the new education system. Chege listed six top challenges her department is facing on the implementation of the new curriculum, among them being inadequate funding of the activities in her office.

Other hiccups she said are emergent policy concerns, which necessitate strengthening of collaborations with stakeholders, including county governments, sports and talent development entities. She also cited inadequate staffing, weak technical capacities for monitoring and evaluation of curriculum reforms among education management staff and general misinformation about curriculum reforms.

What, however, stood out is the challenge on uncoordinated data sources. Chege’s concerns were supported by  the deputy director quality assurance and standards, Kezzia Wandera, who said said that NEMIS only aligns itself to primary and secondary education and does not take care of pre-primary, tertiary and university education.

“We would want a one-stop shop of data from pre-primary, all the way to tertiary and universities. This is how we shall be able to holistically execute the mandate we have been assigned,” said Wandera.

This means that the multi-million system launched in 2017 when Fred Matiang’i was the Education Cabinet Secretary may be abolished and more money pumped into a new system. According to CBC task force report, each learner should be given a tracking number at Grade 3 after sitting school-based assessments.

There is Confusion concerning the learners’ transition from primary to secondary schools as senior officials from the Ministry of Education  issue conflicting statements.

The permanent secretary in the State Department of Basic Education, Dr. Jwan Julius has issued a directive to County Directors of Education (CDEs) to map out primary schools with spaces to host Junior Secondary learners.

In a circular to CDEs, Jwan suggests that some primary schools’ infrastructure will be used by Junior Secondary learners.

“In preparation for the roll-out of Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) to junior Secondary, the ministry requested the CDEs to provide a list of the public primary schools which would be used as Junior secondary schools,” reads the circular.

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The circular signed by Moses Karati, on behalf of PS Jwan, asks the CDEs to draw a compressive list of the schools with available spaces to be used to anchor Junior Secondary learners.

“The purpose of this letter is, therefore, to request you to urgently indicate the available classrooms for use by Junior Secondary against each school,” reads the circular.

The circular dated November 22 a statement issued later by the Principal Secretary for Implementation of Curriculum Reforms, Prof Fatuma Chege that primary schools will not host Junior Secondary students.

“No secondary school will be in a primary school,” said PS Chege on November 24, barely two days after the circular was released.

Chege spoke on the sidelines of a conference jointly organised by the Ministry of Education and Kenya Institute of Special Education (KISE).

The statement by PS Chege is similar to the findings of the CBC task force report that said Junior Secondary learners would be domiciled in secondary schools.

PS Chege said that the two extra classrooms that would be left in primary schools’ as Grade Six learners transition to Junior secondary will be used for ECDE classes.

The circular by Jwan, however, sets in motion the mapping of primary schools that would be used to host Junior Secondary.

The circular wants detail of the school, available classrooms for use by the secondary, the County and Sub County where the institution is located.

Attached to it is a list of 14 counties that have already identified some 1, 652 primary schools that would host Junior Secondary students.

Baringo, Bomet, Elgeyo Marakwet, Kajiado, Kericho, Laikipa, Nakuru, Nandi, Narok and Samburu are listed as having primary schools with excess spaces that can host Junior secondary school learners.

Other counties are Trans Nzoia, Uasin Gishu, Turkana and West Pokot.

The government has embarked on a smooth transition of learners from nursery schools to secondary schools in new plan to relieve parents from tension.

According to fresh plans, nursery school children are likely to be accommodated in all primary schools since the government seeks to make good use of the two classrooms which would remain vacant under the newly implemented 2-6-3-3-3 education system.

Consequently, all secondary schools will also be required to additional rooms and resources in readiness for junior secondary schools.

According to the PS for Implementation of Curriculum Reforms, Prof Fatuma Chege, plans are underway to ‘demolish walls’ to allow for smooth transitions.

“We know that the child in pre-primary will transition to Grade 1, and it does not make much sense to keep the boundaries as they are,” said Chege.

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The PS argues that this would supplement ongoing plans to construct 10,000 classrooms during the transition.

Ksh 4 billion to begin the first phase of the CBC school infrastructure development programme have already been released to the ministry of education, which will supervise construction of the additional classrooms.

In addition to the ksh1.2 billion from the ministry’s infrastructure fund, the money will be spent on constructing 6,500 classrooms in 6,371 secondary schools.

“This programme seeks to address the classroom deficit in our public secondary schools to allow for a smooth transition of CBC Grade 6 learners to junior secondary in January 2023,” said Magoha.

According to Chege, the Ministry of Education had also written to the Council of Governors for the purposes of designing a policy that will enable counties to work with the national government “to share resources to support that child who is in pre-primary as they learn CBC and transition seamlessly to primary school.”

This, she said, was part of the grand transition plan to break walls in close collaboration with counties.

“Working with counties to ‘demolish the walls,’ is to note that as primary school tenure reduces to six years, there is space that will be left by Standard 7 and 8,” said Chege.