CS Machogu reassures of smooth transition to Junior Secondary Schools

Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu is putting on a brave face affirming that all is well in the transition of learners to Junior Secondary School.

Machogu, who toured Kisii County on Thursday announced that 96% of learners have reported to school despite the fact that learning is yet to fully take off in a number of public Junior Secondary Schools across the country due to several challenges such as lack of capitation, adequate textbooks and a poor pupil to teacher ratio.

“We expect 100% transition from Grade 6 to Grade 7 and am happy to inform Kenyans that for Junior Secondary Schools we are now at 96%,” Machogu said.

It is more than a month since Junior Secondary Schools across the country opened for the first term.

The government had promised to release capitation funds worth Ksh. 15,000 per learner in JSS, money that is yet to be released, a situation that has left many schools struggling to sustain learning activities.

“We have agreed on a figure of 15,042 per student and that money will be released anytime from now because what we were waiting for is the exact figure and the enrolment per every school,” the CS had said at the time.

Despite the assurance by the CS, a spot check done by Citizen Television revealed that learning in a number of public Junior Secondary Schools is yet to fully take off.

“A school like this is a boarding school running without money is a nightmare and we also have the menace of drought which has affected many parents they are not praying school fees hence keeping these learners in school is becoming difficult on our side,” Peter Wanjala a deputy head teacher at Olkejuado Boys Primary School said.

The school heads also raised concern over the poor pupil-to-teacher ratio which they say threatens the learning outcomes in Junior Secondary Schools.

“Tuko walimu watatu na madarasa ni matatu na hawa wanafunzi wanafanya masomo 14. Kwa sasa tuko na wanafunzi 240 kila darasa lina wanfunzi kama 80,” Wanjala noted.

“We have decided to share the subjects so that these learners are not disadvantaged but you see it is also affecting coverage of the syllabus since the syllabus is time-bound,” a teacher at Daraja Mbili added.

The CS also announced that 17,800,000 JSS textbooks have been distributed to public schools across the country however some schools have yet to receive adequate textbooks in all the core learning areas.

 “We have received only 5 textbooks out of all the 14 learning areas and you can imagine what we are going through as teachers. We are trying to go out of our way to keep these learners busy including downloading notes on the internet,” Wanjala stated.

Florence Makana a deputy head teacher at Our Lady Of Mercy added: “The textbooks that we have received are for optional subjects like for example German so it's kind of those books are going to be dumped there because we don’t have the experts.”

Amidst these growing concerns, CS Machogu insisted that the CBC train has already left the station sustaining his dismissal of claims that the government was ill-prepared for this transition. 

“The textbooks are out in only a few areas that we have not been able to send the textbooks and that exercise is also ongoing by next week we should have finalised giving textbooks to each and every junior secondary school,” CS Machogu said.