The Ministry of Education has revealed methods that will be used when placing Grade 6 learners in junior secondary schools in January 2022.
Grade 6 learners shall sit for their final examinations at the primary school level in the month of November this year before transitioning to junior secondary school at Grade 7.
The Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA) is scheduled to start on the 28th to 30th of November 2022.
The examinations will be multiple choice questions and shall end on the same day as the Kenya Primary School Education (KCPE) national examinations.
The timetable for the examinations has already been released and it indicated that the examinations will be done within three days.
Grade 6 learners will have one day to do rehearsal which will be on the 25th of November 2022.
However, KCPE candidates will be joining Form 1 while Grade 6 learners will be joining Junior Secondary School at Grade 7.
Factors that will be considered when placing learners in Junior Secondary School
1) Distance from their homes
According to the government officials, the placement of Grade 6 learners into junior secondary school will be informed by the distance of the junior secondary school to their homes.
The State Department overseeing the implementation of the CBC said that learners will be placed in junior high schools based on the proximity to their former primary school.
“Posting of learners to junior high schools will be informed by the capability of parents to transport a child to the school that they have chosen,” said Ruth Mugambi, the technical adviser to the Principal Secretary on matters concerning the CBC.
The Cabinet Secretary for Education George Magoha revealed that junior Secondary schools will be offered in both day and boarding secondary schools across the country.
However, according to Magoha, all Grade 6 learners joining secondary will be day scholars.
Magoha also revealed that the government is in the process of constructing 10,000 classrooms in schools across the country at a cost of around 8 billion to facilitate a smooth transition from Primary to Junior Secondary school come next year.
2) Performance of Learners in the KPSEA and SBA
Just like the current KCPE where the placement of learners depends on their performance in the national examination, the performance of learners will also be used in the placement of learners in junior secondary school.
The SBA will contribute around 60% while the KPSEA will contribute 40% in the final report on the performance of learners.
The KPSEA national test will replace the outdated KCPE which has been in place for decades.
Grade 6 regular learners will sit for five subjects in their final assessment in primary school.
Subjects that will be done by Grade 6 learners are Mathematics, English, Integrated Science and Creative Art and Social Studies.
KNEC Competency-Based Assessment (CBA) Coordinator Ann Ngatia said that Integrated and Creative Sciences will be an integration of various subjects and that the five will be part of the KPSEA.
According to Ngatia, the school-based evaluation will be done in form of projects, practicals, portfolios and oral assessments for learners to demonstrate what they have learnt.
According to KNEC, the administration of the examination will be done by teachers.
3) Optional subjects that learners chose
The Ministry will place Grade 6 learners into Grade 7 depending on the day schools will be offering the optional subjects to the learners.
In the new curriculum, schools will be required to offer at least three optional subjects.
The optional subjects will then determine which secondary school a child will be posted to.
Subjects offered in Grade 7 are as follows:
1. Mathematics
2. Kiswahili of Kenyan Sign Language for learners who are deaf
3. English
4. Integrated Science
5. Health Education
6. Pre-Technical and Pre-Career Education
7. Social Studies
8. Religious
i) Christian Religious Education
ii) Islamic Religious Education
iii) Hindu Religious Education
9. Business Studies 1
10. Agriculture
11. Life Skills Education
12. Sports and Physics Education
Optional Subjects (Minimum1, Minimum 2)
1. Visual Arts
2. Performing Arts
3. Home Science
4. Computer Science
5. Foreign Languages
i) German
ii) French
iii) Mandarin
iv) Arabic
v) Indigenous Languages
vi) Kenyan Sign Language