Education ministry admits hitches in rollout of pioneer Grade 9

Speaking on Monday, Education Principal Secretary (PS) Belio Kipsang' stated that there are fewer classrooms to accommodate the learners and it will have to improvise t o "ensure that we don't disrupt learning".

Kipsang' noted that some classrooms will be congested for 30 days as the Ministry works on constructing more.

"In some situations where the congestion will not allow we can have a multi-shift within the time where when there is a class doing outdoor activity then another group can be optimizing the classroom," he noted.

He added that the Ministry plans to use Ksh.16 billion to complete the construction of the classrooms.

So far, Kipsang' says that 13,500 classes have been completed out of the required 16,000.

The Ministry is constructing 11,000 classes while the remainder will be built with the NG-County Development Fund (CDF) kitty.

According to Kipsang', the ministry has constructed 10,500 classes and NG-CDF has built 3,000.

Furthermore, 9.9 million books have been distributed to different primary schools that domicile Grade 9 classes 

Likewise, the Teacher's Service Commission (TSC) has posted 46,000 teachers who were on internship and another cohort of 20,000 teachers.

Kipsang however maintains that the number of teachers is still low and more should be onboarded to equate the number of learners. 

This comes as the nation is making strides in implementing the Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) in the Junior Secondary School (JSS) roll-out. 

CBC has been beset by poor capitation, unpreparedness and impromptu adjustments to subject clusters as witnessed in the recent past. 

There have been persistent fears that the government is not fully prepared to receive Grade 9 pupils in 2025 next year amid concerns about insufficient facilities and teachers.