Government Prepares Grade 9 Classrooms Across the Country

The government has disclosed its intentions to build 17,000 classrooms in a few months to accommodate students in Grade 9.

Should the government fulfill its promise, the classrooms will be finished by December of this year, one year ahead of schedule for the present Grade 8 cohort’s transfer to Grade 9 in 2025.

The competency-based curriculum (CBC), which will include Grades 10 through 12, will be implemented in senior school starting with the summative Kenya Junior School Education Assessment (KJSEA) in 2025.

Sh10.9 billion allocated nationwide for 3,500 classrooms

On Tuesday, Education CS Julius Ogamba announced that Sh10.9 billion had been allocated for building classrooms for the 1.3 million ninth graders.

“I can attest that there has been a noticeable advancement in the building of the required classrooms. We are building 3,500 schools nationwide right now, according to Ogamba.

After an evaluation visit to track student attendance as classes resumed on Monday, August 26, he gave a speech.

Ogamba examined elementary and junior schools in the counties of Nairobi, Machakos, and Kajiado, while also evaluating the state of classroom building.

CS stated, “That is why we provide these resources to schools,” at his press conference at Lenana School Primary. He acknowledged that the government recognizes the constitutional requirement that ensures every child has the right to free and compulsory basic education.

We will be giving schools Sh7.5 billion this week to begin building an additional 7,500 classrooms across the nation. By December 2024, all of these classrooms will be finished, Ogamba promised.

“We’re also working on getting Sh3.4 billion released to the NG-CDF so they can build another 6,000 classrooms,” he continued.

Issues

The viability of erecting the classrooms and other facilities, such as laboratories, by December in time for the commencement of Grade 9 instruction in January 2025, has drawn criticism, nevertheless.

Kuppet officials have suggested that since Grade 9 students can simply transfer to secondary schools, there won’t be a need for primary schools to hurry into building new classrooms when Form 1 students are absent the following year.

Stakeholders have criticized the junior school’s domicile in elementary schools, claiming that the institutions don’t have the labs and other resources needed for secondary education.

The majority of parents, according to the Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms’ study, preferred that their junior children attend their parent’s primary school.

The team observed that parents voiced worries that, for example, their children would still be too young to attend secondary schools when they were in Grade 7.

Students in grades 7, 8, and 9 range in age from 12 to 14 years old.

At this point, all the nation can do is hope that the government will honor its half of the contract and finish building the 17,000 classrooms on time so that the kids can get comfortable.

Textbooks for grade nine available

The required textbooks for Grade 9 have been finished and will be sent to schools across the nation beginning next month, according to CS Ogamba.

In conclusion, I would like to reassure you that we are not taking any chances in order to make sure that our schools are prepared and welcoming to our students. To make sure that everything goes as smoothly as possible, we will collaborate with all parties involved,” he declared.

In contrast to primary school, where students are taught in terms of subjects, junior school offers nine different learning areas, or 40 classes every week.

These are the basic subjects: agriculture, life skills education, business studies, sports, physical education, English, Kiswahili, mathematics, and social studies.

Additionally, religious education is categorized as a fundamental subject, with students studying either Christian, Islamic, or Hindu religious education.

In addition, pre-technical and pre-career education, integrated science, and health education are taught to learners as key courses.

Visual arts, performing arts, computer science, home science, foreign languages (German, French, Arabic, Chinese, or Mandarin), native tongues, and Kenya Sign Language are among the elective topics.

Pre-technical subjects give students the technical know-how and abilities necessary to do particular jobs, preparing them for the workforce.

According to CS Ogamba, funds have been set aside for teachers to receive retraining so that their knowledge and abilities are in line with the demands of the Competency-Based Curriculum.

Nationwide walkout by teachers

President William further reassured the nation that the process of converting junior school teachers from temporary to permanent and pensionable terms was underway to support the execution of CBC, during his speech on Wednesday in Migori at the beginning of his four-day trip of Nyanza.

In addition to the implementation of their 2021–25 CBA and other problems, Kuppet called for a statewide teachers’ strike because of the delayed transition of 46,000 JSS teachers.

“A budget is already in place. The Ministry of Education and the instructors Service Commission are figuring out how to confirm each and every one of our JSS instructors,” Ruto stated.

“We need to make some arrangements, so please be patient with us. Rest assured, though, that the funds to smoothly transition our JSS teachers are already included in the budget.”

Thirty thousand teachers would be hired, according to the report of the Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms, to help with the transition and overcome the teacher deficit that junior secondary education would cause.