Private school blamed for slow progress in completion of CBC classes

Ministry has expressed concerns that private school owners were slow in completion of Junior Secondary classes, despite them playing a big role in transiting learners from primary to secondary education.

Education Cabinet Secretary (CS), Prof. George Magoha said he was not seeing much construction of CBC classrooms in private schools as compared to the public ones, adding that either the owners were hesitant or slow in exercise.

He challenged them to fast-track the construction and complete the classrooms in time for inspection purposes, so that they can get the go ahead to admit Grade 7 students from next year.

Prof. Magoha noted that in urban areas such as Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, Nakuru, Eldoret where there were more private primary schools and very few secondary schools, private school owners should put up the CBC classroom to address demand next year.

Early in the year, private school owners failed in their attempt to seek financial assistance from the government for funding CBC classroom construction exercise with Magoha dismissing them, saying they were financially capable.

“It is worrying that I’m not seeing much construction of CBC classrooms in those areas. They need to get a bit serious and invest in the construction of junior secondary schools and complete them in time for inspection purposes,” he said, while opening a CBC classroom at Kahuguine Secondary School in Gatundu South Monday.

On the completion of the First Phase of CBC classrooms, the CS said their focus has shifted from the national exams to the completion of all the 6,497 classrooms.

He said the first Phase is at 90 per cent, with over 5,000 classrooms done.

“We were slowed down by the national examination process, and now that they have been completed, we want to bring everyone on board, so that we deliver the 6,497 classrooms before the end of this month,” said Magoha.

He said immediately, the Second Phase will commence so that they deliver 10,000 classrooms before July.

The CS said the next government will also be required to construct another 10,000 classrooms for Grade 8.

In terms of training of junior secondary teachers for Grade 7 and 8, the CS said the exercise was ongoing, aimed at equipping the classes with enough teachers for next year.

On the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) marking exercise, the CS said they are doing extremely well in line with the education timetable and that the results will be delivered before schools re-open for Term 1 at the end of this month.