Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha has changed a widely reported directive touching on the Junior Secondary admissions under the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC).
In a statement released on Wednesday, May 11, the CS directed that all existing day and boarding secondary schools would admit the students transitioning to Junior Secondary School.
He further noted that the ministry had earmarked some 1,500 primary schools that would host excess students advancing to Grade 7.
The transition will affect the first cohort of CBC pupils transitioning from Grade 6 to Grade 7 in 2023.
"Education Ministry wishes to clarify that junior Secondary schools will be offered in both boarding and day secondary schools across the country under the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC). All the existing boarding and day secondary schools will admit learners transiting from Grade 6 to Grade 7 under CBC based on guidelines to be provided by the Ministry.
"The Ministry has identified 1,500 primary schools that will host junior secondary schools because they have adequate learning and teaching facilities and land for physical expansion," read the statement in part.
Some of these primary schools will be developed further to have a fully-fledged secondary wing in the future.
The directive comes after widespread reports intimated that the ministry was only prepared to admit all the Grade 7 pupils in day secondary schools.
Deputy Director for Secondary Education Lawrence Karundi had argued that students would be domiciled in day schools near them as the state sorted the dormitories space challenge.
The space question is compounded by the fact that the current Class 8 pupils will also be transitioning to high school under the old curriculum.
"When it comes to the issue of dormitories, especially with the junior secondary, our focus is that this should be a day school, not boarding.
"The transition will be in such a way that students join schools within where they are now, therefore, boarding may not be necessary," Karundi stated.
The students will be placed into Junior Secondary Schools based on their performance, subjects chosen and the ability to join the day schools.
The candidates will be tested in five subjects including Maths, English, Kiswahili, Integrated Sciences and Creative and Social Sciences.
