The over 20,000 Junior Secondary Schools (JSS) teachers have maintained a hardline stance that they will not report to duty as the new term commences on Monday unless their grievances are addressed. The teachers complained that their grievances to be hired on permanent and pensionable basis had not been addressed todate.

John Melvin, a JSS teacher in Nairobi, led his colleagues in asking the government to stop politicizing education and do things the right way. “Teachers are complaining about employment and should be confirmed. We have issued an official notice to Teachers Service Commission on the strike and we are not reporting to any learning institution even if we are coerced to whatever extent. We are aware that they have been threatening us with deregistration but we will not subject ourselves to that coercion and intimidation,” said Melvin.

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The teachers warned about attempts to intimidate them into silence, saying that a demonstration that was to be held yesterday could not take off because they could not obtain the requisite permit from the police. They also complained about the merging of subjects under Competency Based Curriculum (CBC), saying it would overload them. Melvin gave an example of merging pretechnical studies with computer and business studies saying that is a wide scope to handle within one lesson of about 40 minutes.

“We have issues with merging some learning areas. For example, pre-technical studies is being merged with computer and business studies, how do you expect a teacher to teach that as one learning area? We do not have books to teach that learning area,” he said. “Again, is there a curriculum design to guide teachers on how to handle that learning area and are teachers trained to teach that learning area? What we know is that teachers are trained to teach business or computer studies. Now, when they are merged, how do you expect teachers to teach that yet he or she has been trained in one of the areas?” posed Melvin.

The teachers said that TSC and the Ministry of Education should urgently look into this matter and stop rushing things and do things in an orderly manner. Another JSS teacher, Patience Nkatha in Tharaka Nithi said teachers have been blocked from picketing so that their issues cannot be addressed. “It has come to our attention that teachers are now restricted from speaking out, exercising their rights to picket.

We are aware the letter was served to the OCS and it was rejected and we do not know why that means something is going on that is not right,” she said. Nkatha explained that their contracts as JSS teachers started in February last year and were supposed to lapse on December 31. However, before it could lapse, Nkatha said that a TSC representative said that their contracts had been extended for another year.

“They clearly indicated that it was a one year non renewable contract and once it lapsed we were supposed to be confirmed into permanent and pensionable terms. We do not understand why we are suddenly being told to renew the contracts and we are also being told there is no money,” she said. Similarly, she said they have not seen books merging the subjects and wondered how they are to go to class for a 40 minutes lesson with three textbooks to teach three subjects in one lesson.

“We are not cheap labor and we are supposed to be treated like any other person working for the government. There are no curriculum designs given, you go to create lesson plans with three curriculum designs that is not possible it is confusing the teachers and learners,” said Nkatha. “I do not know why parents are quiet about these issue, they are supposed to come and complain because these are your learners that are being wasted,” she added.

The teachers said there is a big difference between retooling and training of teachers, noting that they should be offered with enhancement courses. Last month, President William Ruto affirmed that internship programmes must take two years before being absorbed on permanent and pensionable terms. Ruto said that this is the Government policy that will be adopted in all sectors, not only for the teaching profession, even as he assured the Junior Secondary teachers that their contract will continue in January.

Once they complete their internship of two years, Ruto assured that they will be given the first priority in hiring permanently. “We will hire everybody so they need to relax, let them go through the process and will have the first priority when we hire teachers after the internship. We are not only doing internships with teachers but also in many other sectors,” said Ruto in a televised interview. “JSS teachers will still work in January because the Kenya Kwanza Government manifesto provides that all sectors, before being hired on permanent and pensionable terms, you first work under an internship programme for two years,” he added.

Staff working under the Human Resource Management and Development directorate at the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) will now be required to work day and night and over the weekends without monetary compensation.

In an internal memo dated May 5,2023 signed by the HRMD Director Dr. Julius Olayo and copied to the Commission Secretary Dr. Nancy Macharia and Director

Administration Services, all the staff working under the directorate have been instructed to choose the preferred shifts, and have the data and preference compiled and submitted by their respective Unit Heads in a new work arrangement introduced on May 8,2023.

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“In an effort to undertake and timely complete priority assignment arising out of the recent recruitment of teachers, deployment of primary school teachers to JSS and pending 2022 exists among others during this payroll month, all officers are called upon to adopt the following work arrangement…during the night shift, tea and snacks will be provided,” reads the memo in part.

According to the memo, there will be a shift arrangement of day and night effective May 8,2023 until further notice during the weekdays. The day shift will start from 6:00 a.m in the morning to 6:00 p.m in the evening while the night shift will run from 7:00 p.m to 6:00 a.m.

For weekends, the work arrangements commenced on May 6,2023; with the working hours running from 9:00 a.m to 4:00 p.m.

“All officers working under the day shift arrangement will also report for duty either on a Saturday or Sunday,” adds the memo.

However, there will be no monetary value incentives with officers being only awarded between one to two days off duty days depending on the shift option. For day shift of 5 working days an officer will be allowed one day off duty, while night shift of 5 days will be allowed a two day off duty; with weekends being allowed only one day off duty.

However, the Commission has instructed that the off das will be taken at later dates after completion of the tasks, with Divisional Supervisors and Unit Heads being instructed to ensure that the tasks involving processing of the 2022 exits are cleared by May 31,2023.

“The respective Divisional Supervisors and Unit Heads have been assigned specific targets which must be attained before the closure of payroll and will be accountable on the same at the end of the task. This work arrangement is binding to all,” directed Dr. Olayo in the memo.

The working arrangements are coming at a time when the Junior Secondary School (JSS) teachers are decrying lack of salary payments since January, with a number of its field officers in particular Sub-County Directors and Curriculum Support Officers(CSOs) working under a rigid work environment including being assigned duties with no facilitation and further working on weekends.

Early this month, the Commission noted that it had already processed 50 per cent of the salaries set to be paid to the newly employed 35,550 JSS teachers shifting the blame on the delayed reporting by some of the teachers to their respective stations.

The Commission advised teachers to confirm the payments with their respective banks, promising to effect all salaries this May.

The first batch of Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) learners join Junior Secondary School (JSS) today amidst utter confusion over teachers’ placement, uniforms and several other technicalities. More than a million learners join JSS at a time the government is yet to finalise the recruitment and deployment of the 30,000 teachers scheduled to teach in the newly introduced section of schools. The government is faced with the headache of teacher shortage and inadequate facilities.

Though the Government released guidelines on the JSS last week, teachers, parents and other education stakeholders say there are many grey areas yet to be addressed. But amidst the challenges, the government has directed head teachers to make do with the available resources and infrastructure as they admit the learners. There are fears too that the 30,000 teachers being recruited, which will translate to one teacher per school, may not be enough since some schools have more than three streams.

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As per Education ministry’s guidelines on JSS, learners will be taught nine lessons per day for five days (45 per week) with each lesson allocated 40 minutes, an indication that more teachers will be required. Primary school teachers allocate 35 minutes per lesson. Guidelines also stipulate that parents would be required to cater for their children’s meals and yet the government is yet to set the amount of money to be paid. Apparently, parents with students in secondary schools pay Sh4,000 per term for meals.

Whereas Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu said that Grade Six pupils transitioning to JSS will be required to wear a different colour or type of uniform that will differentiate them from primary school pupils, most schools are yet to come up with the designs and colours, leaving parents in confusion. However, Kenya Primary Schools Heads Association (KEPSHA) chairman Johnson Nzioka, while urging parents not to panic over the issue, wants head teachers to grant them more time to shop for uniforms.

“I know parents will have a challenge because of the short period of changing the uniform. However, I urge all head teachers to grant parents a grace period to enable them change over to the new uniform within an agreeable time frame,” Nzioka said yesterday. He said though the guidelines on implementation of JSS were only issued last week, schools are prepared to receive the learners. Nzioka noted that head teachers are aware of the hardeconomic times in the country and will give parents a grace period for uniform changeover. He called on schools not to take advantage of the situation. He said learners can report today with the old uniform as parents work on getting the new one.

“It’s good to abide by the change of uniform because we also want them to feel the change. Try as much as possible to get the new ones,” he added. The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) is yet to finalise the recruitment and deployment of 30,000 that began early this year, posing another challenge to schools on who will managethe learners as they report this morning. Nzioka assured that TSC has promised to start deploying teachers today in anticipation to have one for each class of 50 learners. In the meantime, however, Nzioka said the management of existing primary schools where JSS will be domiciled have been charged with the responsibility to identify teachers to temporarily handle the learners until TSC finalises the deployment exercise. Deployment exercise “You see, we have very qualified teachers in primary schools….teachers with bachelor’s degree or even higher qualifications. We know this because we have their papers. They have been assigned to receive and handle the JSS learners,” he explained.

TSC had said that newly recruited teachers would report today to allow for smooth learning. In a bid to address the crisis, TSC has now called for applications from teachers in primary schools interested to move to JSS and set February 6 as the deadline. “Primary school teachers can apply for deployment to JSS. Deadline for application is February 6,” TSC said in a circular on Friday. To qualify, TSC said the teacher must have scored at least C plus at the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) and a similar grade for at least two teaching subjects. They must also have eight units in each of the two teaching subjects and be serving as a primary school teacher under TSC.

Amidst this, questions have also emerged over the requirement for teachers to have two teaching optional subjects besides the two subjects they are qualified in. Teachers say the requirement will lead to majority of them being forced to teach subjects they neither learnt nor qualified in. Stakeholders also question how teachers in JSS will teach some of the pre-technical subjects such as woodwork, performing arts, computers and electrical, among others, that they have least knowledge.

Pre-technical studies are supposed to be allocated two double lessons per week. And whereas JSS will be domiciled in primary schools, the Ministry of Education is yet to clear the air on whether the learners will fall under the primary, secondary or college category in cocurricular activities such as sports, drama and music.

Even as learners report today, the government is yet to release capitation to schools, leaving head teachers in a quandary over how they will raise funds for daily operations. Reports also indicate that some schools are forcing parents to part with admission fee.

Primary schools that will host JSS are expected to benefit from a Sh9.6 billion cash injection comprising Sh15,000 for each learner with Sh4,000 going to infrastructure development. Nzioka, however, insists that no parent has been asked to pay school fees and all JSS learners should report to school. “The Government has already said it will give capitation for all learners, including those joining JSS so no parent should be told to pay.

No KEPSHA member has asked parents to pay fees but the responsibility of meals and school fees lies on parents,” he explained. He said parents with learners in private schools have been asked to pay school fees but not for those in public. The learners are also reporting to school at a time the government is negotiating with World Bank to fund the construction of over 7,000 laboratories in more than 23,000 public primary schools countrywide. At the moment, teachers are still in darkness over how they will handle subjects that require laboratories. Nzioka, however, says that most public schools have an extra room which can be converted.

He said the schools will only require to purchase laboratory equipment which Schools Equipment Production Unit has been catering for that. Chairman has also said that books are expected in schools starting today. Machogu had on Friday launched the distribution of Grade Seven curriculum designs and textbooks to public schools countrywide ahead of reporting today. “The start of the distribution of the Grade Seven textbooks that will cost the Government a total of about Sh3.2 billion follows the completion of the assessment exercise of all primary schools to ascertain their readiness to host JSS,” said the CS.

More than 20,000 out of 31,200 primary schools listed on the Ministry website will welcome JSS learners, leaving over 11,000 schools to serve as feeder schools.

Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu yesterday confirmed that not all primary schools have qualified to host Junior Secondary Schools (JSS) which are expected to open on January 30.

Out of 31,200 primary schools in Kenya, more than 20,000 will welcome JSS learners. The schools that failed to meet the requirements, however, will now act as feeder schools.

A feeder school as explained by the Ministry is a “primary school that lacks the infrastructural or enrolment capacity to house a JSS, and has to transfer the learners to a nearby JSS”.

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The guidelines indicate that in high density areas and urban informal settlements, primary schools with an enrolment of less than 45 learners in the transitioning class or those lacking the basic facilities to domicile a JSS will serve as feeder schools to other JSSs within a two kilometre proximity.

Additionally, in geographically expansive, low density and insecurity prone areas, as well as for learners with special needs and disability, the Ministry will implement affirmative action regardless of the enrolments in the transitioning class.

“I am proud to announce that the number of primary schools which will be hosting JSS are now over 20,000…those which have not qualified are actually very few because our major criterion was based on the enrolment, the numbers that we have as they transition. And there are others few that will serve as feeder schools to those that will be offering JSS,” Mr Machogu said.

Mr Machogu was speaking at the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) in Nairobi while presiding over the launch of the distribution of 17.9 million copies of JSS learners’ books.

He instructed public and private schools to only use KICD-approved books.

The government has warned private schools against admission and collection of fees for Junior Secondary School(JSS) before they are approved by the Ministry of Education.
The warning by Mombasa County Director of education Peter Magiri comes as it emerged that no school had so far received approval from the government through the Education ministry to offer JSS.
Addressing the media at his office yesterday at Uhuru Na Kazi Building,Magiri asked parents to be cautious of private schools advertising that they have been approved to offer JSS.
“Some private schools are cunning, I have seen many with banners saying they have been registered to offer JSS. As we are speaking now, there is no school that has been given the go ahead to provide JSS,”said Magiri.

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The education official said they were depending on the private schools to en-sure the 100 per cent transition policy by the government is achieved even as he states that the government will not com-promise on quality in approving private schools to offer JSS.
“Don’t be in a hurry, wait for the government to publish all approved schools so that you get information and be ad-vised accordingly.

The Ministry of Education will from January 9 conduct a countrywide assessment to establish readiness in admitting Grade 7 learners.

The assessment will be conducted in all public and private primary schools through to January 20.

Basic Education Principal secretary Belio Kipsang has said the main agenda for the assessment is to ensure 100 per cent transition of Grade 6 learners to Grade 7, in the existing primary schools.

“We ask all parties involved to train the school management on the ministry’s guideline on the set up of junior secondary schools in Kenya,” he said.

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Through a statement, Kipsang asked stakeholders in the ministry to ensure all public and private primary schools are assessed as per the guidelines.

“Ensure institutions have met the threshold of 60 per cent and above of the requirements duly registered,” he added.

On December 1, 2022, the CBC task force recommended that junior secondary learners be domiciled in existing primary schools.

The report submitted to the President directed that the ministry should add additional classrooms and a laboratory.

“The construction of laboratories will be given priority within the next one year. Members of Parliament are asked to work towards providing support for the extra facilities,” the report reads.

The team led by chairman Raphael Munavu also recommended that the summative assessment should not be used to place learners in JSS.

“Instead, it will be used as an assessment to monitor learning progress and provide feedback to education sector players on areas that require intervention,” the report reads.

Private universities want Junior Secondary as proposed in the new Competency Based Curriculum (CBC)2-6-3-3-3 system to be domiciled in primary schools instead of in secondary schools. The National Association of Private Universities in Kenya (NAPUK) says hosting Junior Secondary in primary schools will give room for primary school teachers who have upgraded to university degree qualifications to adequately support Junior Secondary and be compensated.

Napuk is also worried that a majority of Kenyan schools have no adequate resources in terms of infrastructure to seamlessly implement the Competency Based Curriculum (CBC). In a memoranda submitted to the 49-member Presidential Working Party on Education Reform on November 11 at Chania High School in Thika town, NAPUK said secondary schools are already too strained to accommodate pupils transiting from primary schools due to governments 100 per cent transition policy that started four years ago.

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NAPUK recommends that Junior Secondary be domiciled in primary schools instead of secondary schools, since the exiting Standard Eight pupils (the 8-4-4 curriculum continuing students) will leave behind infrastructure that can adequately host Junior Secondary students. The memorandum is signed by Dr Vincent Gaitho, NAPUK’s Secretary General, who is also Mount Kenya University Pro-Chancellor Tertiary/University education.

Measure of transition The association wants the Ministry of Education to implement policies that will change parents and students’ mind-set that geographical mobility is not the perfect measure of transition from one schooling level to another. “Embracing e-learning will make Kenyans appreciate that time and space are inconsequential when it comes to acquiring an education,” said the memo in part.

NAPUK says there are several benefits of hosting Junior Secondary in primary schools. Primary school teachers who have upgraded to university degree qualifications can adequately support Junior Secondary in their current primary stations while university graduate teachers in primary schools can be promoted and adequately compensated to engage in supporting Junior Secondary classes.

The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has begun a process that will ensure that the first batch of several primary and secondary school teachers move to junior secondary schools.

TSC has unveiled a plan through which a good number of teachers will be placed to teach in junior secondary schools starting next month.

Junior secondary school section will accommodate Grade seven, eight and nine and the current Grade six learners are expected to join junior secondary in January 2023, after sitting for their final assessment in primary school this November.

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The Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA), which will start on 28th November, will end on 30th November 2022.

According to TSC, only teachers with the required qualifications will be posted to teach in junior secondary schools.

Both primary and secondary school teachers and those in special schools will take part in teaching the pioneer Grade 7 learners next year.

Among the minimum qualifications put forth by the commission are;

1.Diploma in Education

2.Higher National Diploma in Education

3.Bachelors Degree in Education

4.Post Graduate Diploma in Education

5.Masters Degree or PhD in Education

Additionally, the teachers must have been trained in Secondary Teacher Education with at least two teaching subjects.

The teacher must also have scored a mean grade of C+(Plus) and above at KCSE and must have at least C+(Plus)and above at KCSE in the two teaching subjects.

TSC says teachers who scored C (Plain) and below at KCSE and joined Universities and studied Bachelors degree in Education (Secondary option) will not be eligible for deployment.

Those who received training on Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) will have an added advantage,The Commission has a list of all primary school teachers who attended CBC trainings.

However primary school teachers will onty be used in teaching Grade seven pupils in places where there are acute shortage of secondary school teachers trained to teach junior secondary.

At least 60,000 secondary school teachers were trained to handle Grade Seven and Eight in April this year.

The Commission also trained 120,000 primary school teachers to handle grade six learners in December last year.

Most primary school teachers who meet the requirement to teach in secondary schools will be moved this year and early next year as the Commission plans major recruitment exercise as well as staff balancing.

TSC is in a process of recruiting at least 30,000 primary and secondary school teachers in January next year.

P1 teachers who have been complaining of slow pace of deployment process will be surprised this time as TSC plans to move most of them to teach in 8.4.4 secondary schools.

The Commission has also planned to train 116,024 high school teachers in December this year. TSC says the teachers will be trained in preparation for Grade nine class.

It’s not clear whether the training will happen. This is after the government move to slash TSC. allocation of ksh 1.02 billion which it receives annually for training teachers on the new curriculum.

Staffing has been a perennial milestone around TSC’s neck with Chief Executive Officer Nancy Macharia revealing that the service has a deficit of 114,581 teachers across training colleges, curriculum support and primary and secondary schools.

The kenya national union of teachers, KNUT, is pushing for a review of the junior secondary level of the Competency Based Curriculum.

KNUT is scheduled to make its presentation to the CBC government task force next week. The teachers union also wants increased financing of the curriculum.

Knut secretary general Collins Oyuu has revealed that their presentation is based on a research project conducted in 2019.

“We have conducted two types of research that will help us make our presentations, one in 2019 and the other in 2022,” Oyuu said.

The research calling for a review of junior secondary is based on domiciling of the said learners at Grade 7, 8 and Grade 9.

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According to KNUT’s proposal, junior secondary should be called senior primary, which will later transition to middle school or otherwise intermediary school.

According to Knut Corporate officer Mark Oseno, the reason for this recommendation is the fact that there are more primary schools compared to secondary schools.

“We have almost 6,000 secondary schools and 24,000 primary school so even if you give one classroom to every secondary school then they can’t match,” Oseno said.

The corporate officer said infrastructure is the main concern for this proposed shift to intermediate school.

He said the government could utilise infrastructure available in primary schools in the meantime.

“In the completeness of this proposal we have a school called middle school which was previously intermediate so that they are not attached to primary or secondary,” he added.

Grade 7 learners study 12 core subjects and seven optional subjects.

From the seven subjects they have to pick a minimum of one and maximum of two.

The optional subjects are visual arts, performing arts, home science, computer science, foreign languages, Kenyan sign language and indigenous languages.

The core subjects are English, Kiswahili, mathematics, integrated science, health education, pre-technical and precareer education, social studies.

Others are religious education, business studies, agriculture , life skills and sports and physical education.

Summative assessment at the end of Grade 6 will be administered in five subjects, not 13 as earlier reports indicated.

The subjects have been clustered into five groups: English, Mathematics, Integrated Science, Creative Arts and Kiswahili.

Integrated Science contains Science and Technology, Agriculture, Home Science and Physical Health.

Creative Arts and Social Studies includes Social studies, Christian, Islamic and Hindu education, arts and crafts and music.

Summative assessments contribute 60 per cent while the two school-based assessments contribute 20 per cent each.

The Kenya Primary School Education Assessment will be administered from November 28.

A sample of answer sheets for the Kenya Primary School Education Assessment seen by the Star shows there are multiple choices.

Students are expected to fill in the school code number, assessment number, candidate name and school.

From four multiple choices, they are instructed to cross one of the options to indicate the answer.

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.

Confusion has engulfed the payment of more than Sh7.8 billion owed to contractors who built 10,000 classrooms for the Competence Based Curriculum (CBC) following President William Ruto’s announcement to form a task force on the education system. Local Directors of Education are now feeling the heat of the government’s delay to pay the contractors who have been under pressure from Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha to finish work before the end of this month ahead of the first intake into Junior Secondary Schools (JSS) next year.

Though the Ministry of Education yesterday moved to assure the contractors that their issue is being handled at high levels, uncertainty shrouded the payment process with questions emerging on whether the government would honour the agreement in the wake of plans to form a task force whose report would determine the fate of CBC.

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The contractors were supposed to have been paid in May, but the government pushed the payments to be made after the end of the 2021/2022 financial year. Ruto taskforce Sources intimated to People Daily that certain forces within government are pushing to have the payments shelved until the time the fate of CBC is determined by the proposed task force. Should that happen, then contractors should brace themselves to wait for a longer time that could run into months, before their payments could be effected.

During his inauguration, Ruto promised to form a task force to collate views from Kenyans and education stakeholders to determine whether to disband or retain CBC with some modifications. Education Principal Secretary Julius Jwan, while conceding to the delay in the payments due to some logistics related to the “ongoing transition”, his ministry has already engaged the National Treasury over the matter. “The payments have been delayed because of the logistics of political transition but we are engaging the Treasury to ensure that they are paid as soon as possible. We plead with them to be a bit patient as we get this sorted out,” Jwan said.

Jwan assured contractors that the “top brass in the government” is fully seized of the matter and is doing everything possible to ensure the payment is effected as soon as possible and asked Kenyans not to read too much politics into it. But some of the contractors who talked to People Daily accused the government of playing a “ping-pong game” with them over the payments. We wonder how the payments have been delayed by the political transition in government when the project was fully planned and budgeted for. Have they just realised now that the contractors were supposed to be paid?” asked David Anami, one of the contractors based in Kakamega who is demanding pay for ten classrooms.

Anami says the delay has caused immense suffering to some of his colleagues with a number of them facing threats from auctioneers while others have not paid their staff salaries and operation bills. Junior secondary The matter has been compounded further by President Ruto’s directive to ministries, State departments and agencies not to effect payments of more than Sh50 million without the approval of the National Treasury, a directive intended to stop a last-minute spending spree by outgoing officials.

The government had earmarked to construct at least 10,000 classrooms by end of last month to ease congestion in readiness for the anticipated double intake next year when more than 1.5 million Grade Six learners are expected to join JSS and an additional 1.5 million from Standard Eight join Form One. President Uhuru Kenyatta had last year directed the National Treasury to make available Sh8.1 billion for the project to support the primary to secondary school shift in the CBC