Gov’t Embarks On Mop-Up Exercise To Achieve 100pc CBC Transition.
The Ministry of Education has begun mopping-up operations in Busia County to ensure that the government policy of 100% transition from primary to secondary school is met.
More than 480 students who took the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) last year have yet to report to their respective secondary schools, according to reports.
Addressing parents, administration officers, and 2021 KCPE students in Butula Sub-county, Ambassador Simon Nabukwesi, Principal Secretary (PS), State Department for University Education and Research, challenged parents to take responsibility for their school-going children and support the government in its efforts to ensure the children receive an education.
He stated that the government has made significant investments in education to ensure that every Kenyan child attends school.
The PS defended the Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) as one of the Best Education models and encouraged students to use their competencies while in school, noting that co-curricular activities have the potential to help them succeed in life.
Following the implementation of the 100% transition Policy to supplement Free Day Secondary School, primary to secondary transition rates increased from 83.3% in 2018 to 95% by the first quarter (Q1) of 2020. Busia County has received 95% of the 2022 intake.
National and county governments, income-generating projects, alumni, the private sector, donors, and non-governmental organizations fund the majority of secondary education.
“The national Government’s expenditure on Early Learning and Basic Education increased from 11 per cent of the total spending on education in 2015/16 to 15 percent 2018/19.
"Expenditure on secondary school education accounted for more than 95 percent of total spending on early learning and basic education throughout the period,” noted Nabukwesi.
Butula Boys High School principal Dan Ouma echoed his sentiments, applauding the government’s efforts to provide infrastructure development and human resource capacity for a smooth transition into the new CBC system.
Mr. Ouma explained that the move toward a 100 percent transition from primary to secondary education is just one step toward universal basic education.
The PS challenged parents to invest in education, particularly digital learning, for their children in order for them to be relevant in the job market and productive, shaping the future and avoiding drug abuse and early pregnancy.
“For societies to compete in the global economy, its citizens need a secondary school education in order to acquire the specific skills and aptitudes necessary for an increasingly technology-driven marketplace, this will play a vital role in achieving our ‘Big 4’ agenda,” added Nabukwezi.
The major impediment to complete transition has been parents’ attitudes toward education and poverty. Despite the government’s efforts to facilitate transition exercises, parents are still dealing with the effects of the Covid 19 pandemic.
According to Kenya National Bureau of Statistics data, between 2016 and 2020, secondary school enrollment by class and gender increased by 8% to approximately 3,520,000, with girls accounting for 50.3 percent of the total.
This increase has been attributed to the government’s policy of ensuring a 100% transition from primary to secondary school.
In the 2020 school year, following the COVID-19 pandemic, Kenya’s total secondary school enrolment fell from 3.5 million in March 2020 to 3.3 million in March 2021, a 5.7% drop as schools reopened.
Furthermore, approximately 233,300 students did not return to school to resume learning when schools reopened in March 2021, accounting for 6.6% of those enrolled in March 2020.
The number of secondary schools that were able to reopen increased by 0.4%.
Many parents in Busia County blamed the failure to achieve 100% transition on a lack of resources that prevented them from enrolling their children in secondary school, a challenge exacerbated by the impact of COVID-19.
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Busia County finished second in the 2021 KCPE results, which were released earlier this year. Despite the fact that this was not the case for secondary school results KCSE.
Gov’t Embarks On Mop-Up Exercise To Achieve 100pc CBC Transition