Grade 6 learners who completed their Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA) on Wednesday are going to be domiciled in primary schools.
This means that primary school teachers are now set to teach in the junior secondary school level (JSS) specifically in Grades 7, 8 and 9 starting January 2023.
According to the Presidential Working Party of Education Reforms (PWPER) members revealed that the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) had been directed to teach in junior secondary.
The Commission has set the Diploma as the minimum requirement for teachers who wish to teach in junior secondary level.
Teachers in primary school level who qualify to teach in Grades 7, 8 and 9 are those with:
- Diploma and Degree in Special Needs Education
- Diploma and Degree in Early Childhood Development Education
- Diploma and Degree in Education (Primary option)
- Diploma in Education (Secondary option)
- Degree in Education (Secondary option) but lacking a C+ in KCSE or a C+ in teaching subjects.
Teachers who have Diplomas selected to teach in the junior secondary will begin at Job Group C1 and later move to C2 automatically after serving for three years.
Teachers who have a Degree will start at Job Group C2 but will later be moved to Job Group C after serving for three years.
The selected will have to be re-equipped on how to handle the subjects taught in junior secondary.
The recently concluded national examinations done by the pioneer Competence-Based Curriculum (CBC) learners will not be used to place grade 6 learners in JSS. Instead, it will be used as an assessment for monitoring learners’ progress and providing feedback to various stakeholders of education.
Besides, it will also provide information on areas that require intervention.
The announcement is a huge relief to the more than 1,287,597 candidates who sat for their KPSEA examination without knowing what their fate would be.
The government is also set to recruit 30,000 more teachers by January with the date for posting the recruited teachers yet to be determined. Reopening of schools for the new academic years will be on the 23rd of January 2023.