Grade Six learners who sat for their Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA) will take new subjects similar to those taught in high school in the new transition.
Speaking during the Kenya Primary Schools Head Teachers at the Sheikh Bin Zayed Primary in Mombasa on Monday, December 5, the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) director, Charles Ong'ondo, noted that the subjects will be rolled out in January 2023.
According to Ong'ondo, Grade Seven (junior secondary) students will be introduced to History, Geography, Business Studies, Home Science and Life Skills.
Apart from English, Mathematics and Kiswahili, they will also learn Biology, Physics, Chemistry and Social Studies.
Although President William Ruto affirmed the Presidential Working Party on Reforms' recommendations to domicile Junior High Schools in primary schools, learners will be introduced to optional subjects.
"We will also introduce optional subjects in foreign and indigenous languages. The curriculum designs for JSS gets learners from theories to practicals and experiments. Science will metamorphosis to become integrated science which will have technology," Ong'ondo stated.
The learning structure will also shift as learners will be introduced to inferential comprehension and application.
Ong'ondo, the KICD director, added that learners will also be exposed to compound sentence structures in the transition.
Practical subjects will be further rolled out for the Grade Seven students.
After receiving the report from the Presidential Working Party on Reforms, Ruto indicated that the KPSEA exams will be used to monitor their progress instead of placing them in Junior High School.
At the same time, he directed that the junior secondary schools, which include Grade Seven, Grade Eight and Grade Nine, be domiciled in the existing primary schools.
To facilitate the transition, Ruto indicated that the government was at an advanced stage of recruiting 30,000 teachers starting January 2023.
However, headteachers appealed to President Ruto to increase capitation to institutions.