Confusion as Closed School Registers KCPE Candidates

Magoha
Education CS during a press briefing about the re-opening of teachers training colleges on July, 2020
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A probe has been ordered by the Ministry of Education on Eldo Kings Star Academy in Eldoret, which was closed in 2019 following its registration of candidates for the 2021 Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) exams.

Principal Secretary for Basic Education Julius Jwan was left in shock after he found the school operating during a KCPE monitoring exercise on Tuesday, March 23. 

Eldo Kings Star Academy’s indefinite shut down was upon realization by the Education Ministry that it did not meet the required thresholds to run. The teachers in the school lacked Teachers Service Commission (TSC) registration numbers as well as an inconducive learning environment.

Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) PS Julius Jwan
Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) PS Julius Jwan
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In his monitoring exercise, Jwan discovered that part of the school had residential houses, with tenants going about their home chores while KCPE exams were being administered at the same time.

The tenants are said to have disappeared after noticing the presence of the Ministry of Education officials and police officers.

Jwan assured that investigations would be carried out to identify why the school was still functioning despite being condemned.

“We are going to discuss with our officers why this school still exists yet this is what they are in the field to do,” Jwan said.

According to the school’s headteacher Duncan Ocholla, the school had 45 KCPE candidates and 372 pupils. 

The education PS assured transition for the KCPE candidates to secondary school in July, as they are not to be punished for the school’s mistake.

Condemning the school’s act, the PS urged parents to avoid such private schools and instead take their children to public schools.

There are good public primary schools in the area and parents should not take their children to dilapidated private institutions,” he said.

This comes the KCPE exams are set to end on Wednesday, March 24.

 

An aerial view of pupils at a school sanitizing at various stations set up as per the Ministry Of Health regulations.
An aerial view of pupils at a school sanitizing at various stations set up as per the Ministry Of Health regulations.
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