Parents and Boards of Management (BOMs) will decide on junior secondary school uniforms to be used starting February this year.
The Cabinet Secretary for Education Ezekiel Machogu revealed this on Monday the 16th of January 2023. He said that this will help in distinguishing the junior secondary section from the primary and the 8-4-4 secondary school sections.
“Although learners will join Grade Seven in the schools where they were enrolled in Grade Sixx, there is a need to distinguish the Junior Secondary School section. As a result, a decision has been made that parents and Boards of Management agree on the new uniforms for Junior Secondary School learners,” said Machogu.
Besides, CS Machogu said that schools will have an elaborate admission process in place for Junior Secondary School learners through NEMIS.
CS Machogu warned public schools against charging extra levies for Grade 7 learners due to the one hundred percent transition policy in the same school where learners were enrolled while in Grade 6.
A total of 1,2533,577 Grade 6 learners sat for their 2022 Kenya Primary Schools Education Assessment (KPSEA) in 32,555 centers across the country and will transit to Junior Secondary Schools.
CS Machogu directed the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) to work together with the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) and the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to assist schools to interpret reports for both learners and parents.
He urged KNEC, KICD, and the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to provide feedback to help in the curriculum reforms.
“I also direct the Council to hold joint discussions with the KICD and TSC on the national KPSEA reports with a view to providing feedback on the CBC curriculum that can inform ongoing curriculum reviews,” said Machogu.
President William Ruto directed the National Treasury to allocate Kes. 15,000 per learner as a capitation to facilitate free learning in all public junior secondary schools.
The Government is set to spend Kes. 9.6 Billon for the learners in Junior Secondary this year. This means that no school is set to charge any fees for Grade 7 learners unless those schools have boarding wings.
Recruitment of over 30,000 new teachers is currently ongoing with most of them set to be assigned to Junior Secondary Schools.
Learners set to join Grade 7 will report to their respective Junior Secondary Schools (JSS) on the 30th of January 2023.
The Ministry has been undertaking an assessment of all public and private schools since the 9th of January and will conclude tomorrow.
The assessment is looking at, among their factors, whether the respective school has adequate land to host Junior Secondary School level, the availability of buildings to be used as classrooms and laboratories and whether the school has adequate water and power supply.
14,589 public and private schools had been assessed as of the 13th of January 2023 with 13,221 schools approved at that time to host Junior Secondary Schools.