Schools, Parents Prepare for 36-Week School Academic Calendar
On January 23, 2023, parents will have a challenging time when the school calendar returns to normal.
The calendar interrupted by covid-19 has been reverted to its original state.
This could relieve parents who would otherwise pay school fees nearly every month.
As a result of the government’s elimination of the education subsidy, parents must now pay full tuition.
All pre-primary, primary, and secondary schools will begin on January 23 and end on April 21 for 13 weeks.
Students will take a midterm break from June 29 to July 2 and a summer vacation from August 12 to August 27.
The third term will run from August 28 to November 11, whereas the December break will last from November 3 to January.
The KCPE national examinations are set for November 6 to 9, while the KCSE examination is slated for November 10 to December 1.
CS Education Ezekiel Machogu addressed the government’sgovernment’s decision to eliminate the secondary school fee subsidies.
Last November at Wajir High Academic, Machogu explained that the change was due to a return to normalcy in the school calendar.
“From January 23, we will have three terms the way it used to be before so the fees structure remains the same as two years ago,” Machogu said.
This results from a circular sent to senior education officials informing them of the fee adjustments.
“Anybody saying the figure has been changed, that is not here in Kenya. Changing school fees would need another taskforce,” he said.
Due to the accelerated school calendar caused by Covid-19, the ministry lowered tuition by Sh8,500.
According to a ministry circular, parents would continue to pay the previous amount of Sh53,554 for national schools.
This will apply to public and private schools in seven counties.
The new guidelines were drafted for all county education directors.
The circular lists the counties as Nairobi, Mombasa, Nakuru, Kisumu, Nyeri, Thika, and Eldoret.
The new regulation applies to boarding institutions.
The ministry has also assigned category B to the schools.
In this case, the government will grant a Sh22,244 subsidy equivalent to the amount given to day school students.
“To meet the cost of boarding as well as maintenance and improvement parents will pay Sh40,535,” the circular reads.
National schools currently pay Sh45,054, while Extra County and County schools pay Sh35,035.
Additional county and county institution payments would be reduced by Sh5,500.
Congestion
Due to the lack of infrastructure, achieving a seamless transition from primary to secondary schools proved challenging.
Even though Grade 6 students are retained in primary school, there needs to be a defined infrastructure policy for students.
The government has only pledged to build an additional classroom and laboratory for every one of the 24,000 schools.
But how sustainable is this in a setting where each track requires 40 to 45 students?
According to the teachers, if the government develops one classroom for each school with nearly 500 students, then schools will still demand additional classrooms.
This year, secondary public schools also needed help with infrastructure issues.
Several school administrators confessed to the Star that they had implemented her alternative strategies to combat overcrowding.
A principal in the county of Bomet stated that the school welcomed nearly 560 pupils.
Thus an additional dormitory for 300 kids is being constructed.
“With our board of management, we came up with a temporary dormitory. We used iron sheets outside and timber inside. It accommodates more than 200 students,” he said.
So that students can learn in shifts, sessions now begin at 7.30 am instead of 8 am.
“The dining hall was meant for 400 students but the school has 1,600 students,” he added.
The instructor is scared, but the overcrowding is problematic and could be hazardous in the event of a stampede.
After enrolling 600 pupils in Form 1, a second school in the county of Nairobi now has a student population of 1,700.
The students sleep in classrooms at night and study in the same rooms during the day.
A girls’ school in Vihiga admitted nearly 450 Form 1 students, up from about 335 the previous year.
Due to the increased number of students, the school had to construct an additional dormitory.
In Form 1, the school had to increase the number of streams from six to eight.
A school with ten streams elsewhere had to construct two additional classrooms and a 200-bed dormitory for Form One students, enrolling around 700 kids.
For example, Dagoretti High School has ten streams for Form One students.
School’sSchool’s principal, Lawrence Nyakweba, has a temporary solution if junior secondary students opt to become paid boarders.
Due to the teacher shortage, the school’sschool’s board of management has hired 28 Board of Management teachers.
The transition has been pricey.
Grade 6 Transition
It has been a challenging year for the parents of Grade 6 learners, who have endured drastic transformations and uncertainties.
New curricular guidelines have been implemented as a result of the regime shift.
Former President Uhuru Kenyatta had ordered that the sixth grade be housed in secondary schools, a decision that the current administration recently rescinded.
President William Ruto established a 49-person task committee to drive education reforms.
After two months of public engagement, the team delivered an initial report outlining the transition to Junior Secondary School.
The report provided to the President stipulated that junior secondary students must be housed in existing primary schools.
The directive was issued after parents had selected JSS schools for their children and held prayer day and graduation ceremonies.
In addition, the report suggested that the ministry establish more classrooms and a laboratory.
The team led by chairman Raphael Munavu advised that the summative assessment not be utilized to place students in JSS.
The paper states, “Rather, it will be utilized as an assessment to evaluate learning progress and provide feedback to education sector actors on areas that require intervention.”
In addition, the team suggested that primary schools adjacent to secondary schools should share laboratories and other facilities with junior secondary schools.
Schools, Parents Prepare for 36-Week School Academic Calendar
