Education Cabinet Secretary (CS) George Magoha on Monday, June 20, disclosed that the inaugural class under the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) will remain in primary schools even after passing the 2022 national exam meant to qualify them for junior secondary.
Speaking to the media at the Moi Educational Centre, Magoha allayed fears raised by parents over the preparedness of private schools to host in the first lot of Grade Six graduates as boarders in junior secondary schools.
He stated that there was no need for the parents to move the students to different institutions, adding that the competition should be left for when they are looking to join senior secondary schools in Grade 10.
"It would be very important for the parents who already have their children in private schools to retain them in junior secondary facilities that are established within those schools so that the cut-throat competition that comes after standard eight be postponed to Year 10," he stated.
"It is just one additional year so that they will even be a little bit older than usual when they start competing now for the senior school," Magoha added.
Magoha also dismissed the notion that the CBC meant that students joined high schools at a young age, and that the teachers were not trained well to handle the students. He noted that some secondary schools had admitted students as young as 12 years old in the 8-4-4 system.
"Who said that our teachers are not well-trained, even in this school, we have had 12-year-olds before and even now. I am a doctor and I can tell you that the difference between a 12 and 14-year-old is not that serious, they even behave better," he declared.
The Education CS noted that the construction of CBC classrooms in public schools was in progress, with 1,296 out of the 5,000 being ready. He added that he would be ensure that all classrooms would be completed before the government handed them over to the primary schools.
Magoha further gave his two cents on the current menace of politicians seeking elective positions presenting invalid degree certificates to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) for clearance.
He cautioned politicians that no court would hand them degrees, adding that the powers to verify degrees lies with universities. The CS opined that the process of certifying academic documents ought to be easy but was only complicated by politics.
"A judge cannot give you a degree. As a Vice Chancellor I cross-checked many degrees and it would only take a phone call, if you put politics aside, then it is a very simple process," he noted.
The straight-talking CS added that the saga was sending the wrong message to children - with the requirement forcing even those seeking politics to do anything to do anything to obtain the academic certificate
"You do not have to go to the university to be thinking. Do you only think that people with degrees think smart? the answer is no! What that has done is to push everybody else to try and get a degree by all means," he remarked.
The remarks came says after UDA gubernatorial candidate Johnson Sakaja and his Wiper counterpart Wavinya Ndeti, both had their clearance to vie for Nairobi and Machakos respectively challenged over academic qualifications.
