The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has started training and sensitizing primary school head teachers on Junior Secondary School (JSS) management.
This is happening while Grade 7 learners are being admitted to JSS across the country.
The training is happening in every Sub-County under the supervision of the respective TSC County Directors’ office and is intended at instilling skills in the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) as well as management and implementation of junior secondary school.
Headteachers of primary schools were allowed to act as Junior School Principals for one year after which STC will post their replacements.
The government is committed to ensuring that Junior secondary schools remain domiciled in primary schools but will remain distinct from the primary school sections.
The headteachers are also going to be secretaries of junior secondary school boards of management and will be charged with overseeing the financial management of the JSS.
It is the same headteachers who shall receive junior secondary school teachers as of this week.
The JSS will also have some teachers from primary school after they are deployed next month.
According to Cabinet Secretary for Education Ezekiel Machogu, the Government will allocate capitation to Junior Secondary School learners at a sum of Kes.15,000 per learner and this will go towards covering all requirements for every Grade 7 learner.
He said that the government will release the Kes, 9.6 billion towards junior secondary school.
“Junior Secondary School as per the Kenyan Constitution Article 53 is free and compulsory. No registration money is required. No principal, no board of management, or parents’ association will be authorized to come up with unnecessary levies,” said CS Machogu.
CS Machogu also said that parents are free to buy school uniforms from distributors of their choice once schools come up with specifications of the required uniforms.
“We do not expect teachers to send students away because they have not been able to come with a new set of uniforms. Schools should indicate uniforms color and other specifications and parents are at liberty to buy from anywhere they so wish,” added Machogu
Grade Seven curriculum designs and textbooks were launched on Friday to public schools across the country ahead of the reporting of the Grade 7 learners.
“The start of the distribution of Grade Seven textbooks will cost the Government a total of around Kes. 3.2 billion follows the completion of the assessment exercise of all primary schools to ascertain their readiness to host the JSS,” said Machogu.
The CS emphasized that the government had provided enough learning materials after dispersing more than 17.8 Million textbooks for distribution in all JSSs.
Machogu also revealed that Grade 8 Curriculum designs will be complete by the end of the year.
“I am also aware that the KICD in collaboration with publishers had begun the development process of Grade 8 textbooks. This started with the training of publishers on the interpretation of Grade 8 curriculum designs in all learning areas,” he said.
Admission to Grade 7 began yesterday and is still ongoing in the approved junior secondary schools.
However, the shortage of teachers is threatening to cause confusion as schools are lacking teachers who can handle 1.26 million learners in Grade 7.