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.

Education cabinet secretary George Magoha has dismissed calls for Government to give private schools capitation, saying it is entirely up to parents to pay.
“Those in private schools must pay.There has been a little noise about capitation to private schools but that is not going to happen. The Constitution allows us to provide FDSE,” the CS said.

“If you choose a boarding school, you must know that there will be requirements to pay for boarding and feeding. That is why the Government got only needy students from the slums and gave them Elimu scholarship, which is supposed to go for four years,” he noted.
“ We have said that any child who selects a private school must first confirm with their parents. That is why we have roped them,” Magoha added.

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He also maintained that it is entirely up to a parent to make choices, saying the ministry has only issued guidelines for JSS selection but the decision stands with learners and their parents.
“Even in the current situation, some parents do not follow guidelines. You find them selecting top schools like Kenya High several times and do not select anything else,” he said.
Magoha reiterated that for JSS, a majority of the learners are expected to be in day schools near their homes.
“CBC will be a great success of the outgoing government. You have seen the passion we have had and hope the incoming Government will continue with the classroom drive in the next one year then there will be no problems,” Magoha said.

Education CS Prof George Magoha has asked private schools to speed up construction of junior secondary school classrooms to align with implementation of Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC).

Speaking at Ituuru Boys High School in Gatundu South yesterday, Prof Magoha said many private schools lagged behind in construction of the additional classrooms, yet plans to fully roll out the CBC programme were in top gear.

“I urge private schools to get serious and invest in junior secondary schools. I am not seeing much construction and they only need to construct one extra classroom because they already have two,” said the CS.

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He urged the schools to fast-track the programme so that the classrooms can be inspected.

In February, Prof Magoha said the government would approve proposals from private schools that would like to start junior secondary schools.

The CS, who toured six secondary schools in Gatundu South, cited Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, Nakuru and Eldoret as areas with high concentration of private schools.

At the same time, Prof Magoha said teachers handling Grade Seven and Eight will be the first batch to undergo the CBC training. “So as to move forward towards 2023, we need to have enough teachers on the ground and it will be a continuous process with training scheduled for August and December,” the CS told journalists.

Prof Magoha said 5,000 junior secondary school classrooms had been constructed countrywide, with Northern Kenya having completed 100 per cent of the classrooms.

Nyanza stands at 97 per cent with the CS being optimistic works will be completed by the end of this week.

“We are approaching 90 per cent of the classrooms being completed in the country. We were slowed down by the examination process and now that the exams are completed, we want to marshal everybody so that we deliver the 6,497 classrooms before the end of this month in time for us to start phase two of the junior secondary classrooms by July,” noted Prof Magoha.

He said the ministry targets to complete 10,000 classrooms by end of July, as per President Mr Uhuru Kenyatta’s directive. “Whoever takes over the government after elections is also expected to construct another 10,000 classrooms which will be the balance,” added Prof Magoha.

He announced that marking of KCSE exams was ongoing, and that the results were likely to be out before schools reopen later this month.

Private school teachers could remain jobless as the phase-out of the 8-4-4 syllabus hits the homestretch.

The adoption of the Competency-Based Curriculum will see teachers in primary schools teach lesser classes beginning next year as the country phases out the 8-4-4 curriculum.

Currently, only three classes in primary school are taking the 8-4-4 curriculum, which has served for 32 years. In effect, the final class will exit primary school in 2023.

Analysis shows that at the dawn of 2024, primary school teachers will only be handling six classes from the current eight.

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The ripple effect will cut both ways. First, it will be a relief with a reduction on the workload, but it could also have adverse effects on private schools as they move to save on human resources.

According to the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development, the shift will see the workload of these teachers reduced by about 20 per cent.

Kenya Private School Association chief executive Mutheu Kasanga confirmed on Wednesday, that the possibility of laying off staff is far-fetched as they will still be vital in handling the extra demands coming with the CBC.

“Remember there is an increase in the number of subjects taught under the new curriculum and this will balance out with the reduction in the number of classes,” Kasanga said.

However, despite the addition in subjects, it has established that the number of hours allocated to teaching and learning in schools under the CBC remains the same as those of the 8-4-4.

In total, schools take 40 lessons each week similar to the number of lessons taken under the old system.

“The only difference being in the number of subject frequency. For example, prior to the CBC, schools taught core subjects of English, Kiswahili and Mathematics on a daily basis.

However, Kiswahili and English have drastically been reduced and are now taught only three times each week with only mathematics maintaining daily lessons.

This means that despite the introduction of new subjects under the CBC the time allocated to teaching and learning was not revised upwards.

Thus a CBC teacher and an 8-4-4 teacher spend the same number of hours teaching.

However, the real impact will be felt only in 2024 when the 8-4-4 will have completely been phased out of primary school.

With the reduction of two classes in primary schools, teachers currently handling classes, 7 and 8 will have a reduced number of lessons.

The ripple effect could see the shortage of staff addressed in the short run that has been a perennial challenge in teaching and learning in schools.

In primary schools, teachers are trained to handle all subjects, however, for convenience, the schools assign each teacher a maximum of two subjects to handle in at least three classes in upper primary.

This means the teachers can teach all classes from Grade 4 to Standard 8.

In essence, the teachers will now be teaching only three classes of Grade 4, 5 and 6 upon the collapse of 8-4-4 in primary schools.

However, the Kenya National Union of Teachers argues that the pressure is not set to reduce as teachers are expected to handle more subjects compared to the 8-4-4.

The class will accommodate children aged nine or 10 and are expected to take 12 compulsory subjects.

These include English, Kiswahili, Mathematics, Science and Technology, Social Studies, Christian or Islamic Religious Education, Home Science, Agriculture, Art and Craft, Music, and Physical and Health Education.

Knut secretary general Collins Oyuu earlier this week called on TSC to ensure they employ more teachers to address the shortage issue.

Release of 2020 KCSE results has been accompanied by Echoes of silence, unlike in the previous years that such occasions have always been marred with joy and dances.

Analyzing CS Magoha’s statement that administration and marking of KCPE 2020 will have a “human face”, members of the Kenya Private Schools Association (KPSA) have concluded that the human face was strictly meant for a section of candidates particularly from public schools, whom the covid-19 pandemic had deprived valuable instructional time

Prof Magoha in apparent response to parents concerns before the exam was quoted assuring the nation that administration and marking would take in account the challenges many candidates went through last year.

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The just released 2020 KCPE exams results, taken by about 1.2 million candidates, does not reflect any lack of instructional time, especially for candidates in public schools after schools closed in March last year, as it did not deter their march to the top. Coincidentally, the virtual lessons attended by a section of private school candidates have not been reflected in the same results.

The radio and TV lessons offered by the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) were also accessible to only a few from affluent homes.

The schools’ closure negatively affected learners. Leading to dropouts. The sector recorded the highest pregnancy, some opting for early marriage.

Investigations into the pre and post marking events have revealed that there was alleged unfair standardization, which produced abnormal marks among the top candidates and the bottom candidates. After realizing this abnormality, the marks of private school candidates were allegedly chopped down by between 48 to 60 marks compared to the public schools whose marks were chopped down by between 19 and 25 marks. The reason that led to this unfair treatment of the private school pupils is yet to be established. If these allegations turn out to be real, then this would be the most unethical act committed by the government.

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“Standardization should be equal for both private and public schools since all students belong to the government,” decried one teacher from a private school. Some private school directors are already advocating for the scrapping off of standardization so that learners score what they deserve.

“We have never seen or heard about standardised salary, why should our children continue to suffer because of this. The standardisation issue should be dealt with once and for all and if possible, done away with completely,” says Mrs.  Ndunge, a director of a Nairobi school.

According to her, standardisation is not only affecting the final exam results for private school students, but also robbing them a chance to attend their dream schools since students from public schools are also given the first priority when it comes to school selection.

Proprietors and managers of private schools are wondering how a Covid-19 disrupted learning programme, limited access to online learning could endow the underprivileged candidates in public schools to perform better than their peers in academies.

“We understand that moderation and standardisation were done. But this situation where candidates in public school top the ranking nationally and in counties is still a puzzle considering that private schools still posted high mean scores,” says Minishi, the director of Fesbeth Academy.

The entire public is shocked why private schools performed dismally in the recently released Kenya Certificate of primary Education (KCPE) examinations, despite having engaged in online learning during the Covid-19 school closure.

According to 2020 KCPE examinations result analysis, only five private school candidates appeared among the top 15 best nationally, a clear indicator of a shift in scores in comparison to the previous years. Archived Data from the past years show that private schools’ candidates have always dominated the top 10 and most times, public schools’ candidates miss out completely or register a handful candidates. In 2019, only four public schools produced candidates in the top 30 nationally.

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In the 2020 exams, none of the schools that produced candidates among top 30 in 2019 produced no candidate in the top 15 category. Little known schools emerged, posting candidates with top grades.

Kenya Private Schools Association (Kepsa) however argue that private schools might not have produced candidates in the top categories but they posted good mean scores. “If you look at the grades beyond top 15, we have done very well. And we can assure you that after the analysis we shall have done well,” confirmed Mutheu Kasanga, the Kepsa national chairperson. Deeper details show that most candidates in private schools did not do well.

A section of private school parents and teachers have blamed the unsatisfactory results on moderation of the examinations by the Kenya National Examination council (Knec) in a manner that disadvantaged the private school candidates.

Experts however have disputed moderation claims and maintain that most private schools lost quality teachers to other professions or to joblessness during the covid-19 pandemic. Because schools were unable to pay their salaries during the pandemic, most teachers exited private schools for other ventures.

When the pandemic eased and schools opened, some schools were unable to attract good teachers, hence affecting preparation for the learners.

What most concerned persons are questioning is why the results have only reflected private school candidates whose teachers quit but the same results have failed to reflect public school candidates who come from rural areas which lacked access to ‘online classes’ due to poor infrastructure.

They also argued that public schools failed to offer online lessons while a majority of private schools successfully did so, with learners keeping abreast with the curriculum.

The official said Standardization of the examinations was done even before the tests, with each child given equal chance to attempt all questions under the same duration.