Government Proposes New Curriculum to Ban Boarding in Primary Schools

A new curriculum that the government is expected to roll out in the first term of 2019 has proposed a ban on boarding in all primary schools.

Under the 2-6-3-3 system, grade one to nine will mean primary school and grade 10 to 12 will mean secondary learning.

The proposal is part of the preliminary findings of a team set up by the ministry of education headed by former Moi University Vice-Chancellor Laban Ayiro that found out that boarding schools were congested and expensive.

The team further established that long spells in boarding schools and limited contact with parents have been blamed for the wave of indiscipline.

It emerged that parents feared to have children at home and sent them to boarding in early years of schooling to escape responsibility.

Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) Secretary General Wilson Sossion has supported the move by explaining, “Banning boarding schools in primary learning is long overdue. Parents do not spend enough time with their children.”

He added that “As a union, we have strongly proposed that this be done, and even at the National Assembly level we want this legislation brought”

A clergy from Nyahururu, Bishop Joseph Mbatia, has also called for the banning of same-sex schools because mixed schools are advantageous in that they help students build social skills by increasing the levels of interaction between boys and girls.

According to the Bishop, single-sex schools do not prepare people for marriage despite empowering them academically.

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