Principals Want Boarding Schools Scrapped
Secondary school principals have resurrected a campaign to eliminate boarding schools in order to solve indiscipline and congestion in schools ahead of the January junior high changeover.
According to the Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Association (Kesha), day schools will allow parents to be actively involved in their children’s education, in line with the competencies-based curriculum’s goals (CBC).
This means that students will attend their local schools rather than competing for limited spots at national and extra-county residential secondary schools.
“Rethinking boarding secondary schools is something that should be brought for discussion in Parliament and a direction given on the way forward,” said Kesha chairman Indimuli Kahi yesterday during the World Teachers’ Day celebrations.
The first batch of CBC students will enter Junior Secondary schools in January, with parents already indicating a preference for top-performing schools, the bulk of which are residential schools, mirroring the trend during Form One selection.
Elementary education is separated into two years of pre-primary and six years of primary school under CBC.
Junior secondary schools will be located in existing secondary schools rather than primary schools and will serve students in grades seven through nine.
Last year, head teachers lobbied the Ministry of Education to abolish boarding schools in order to reduce growing occurrences of dissatisfaction in the institutions.
The creation of a task team to assess the CBC, basic education, technical and university education may have influenced their newest demand for day secondary schools.
The 42-member task committee has been given six months to provide a report on the curriculum, including an acceptable structure for executing it, after hearing from Kenyans.
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Kenya’s school system is likely to undergo significant upheaval in January, when secondary schools receive Form One students as well as the first cohort of Grade Seven students under the CBC.
Secondary schools have been congested for the past four years as a result of the implementation of the 100 percent transfer from primary schools, with the January double-intake projected to exacerbate the situation.
Principals Want Boarding Schools Scrapped
