The government has now declared that the Grade 6 Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA) will not be used for placement in junior secondary schools.
State House Spokesperson Hussein Mohamed on November 30, 2022, said in a statement that the assessment will instead be used to monitor learning progress and provide feedback to education sector players on areas that require intervention.
Similarly, he said that the Junior Secondary School (JSS) comprising Grade 7, Grade 8 and Grade 9, will be domiciled in the existing primary schools.
“The Ministry of Education will provide the necessary guidelines on how this will be done,” Hussein said.
These recommendations are contained in the presidential working party on education, which presented its interim report to President William Ruto yesterday at State House.
Classrooms and Laboratories
It has also been agreed that extra classrooms and laboratories will be built in every primary school, with laboratories being given priority within the next year.
“Members of Parliament are asked to work towards providing support for the extra facilities. Meanwhile, primary schools neighbouring secondary schools will share the laboratories and other facilities with junior secondary schools,” he stated.
The Ministry of Education, Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) and the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) are also expected to work on modalities of fast-tracking retooling teachers to ensure the country has sufficient numbers who are compliant with CBC.
Priority will be given to those teachers who will be handling Grade 7 learners.
During their public participation fora across counties, a majority of Kenyans recommended that JSS be domiciled in primary schools saying that the learners are too young to join secondary schools.