Facilities headache for schools as 1m join Form One

Head teachers of secondary schools will have to put up with a huge number of students set to join their institutions in January as the government implements the second phase of 100 per cent transition.

The 1,052,364 candidates whose Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examination results were released on Monday will join an estimated 800,000 students who transited to secondary school last year under the programme. This marks a 31 per cent increase amid a warning from the Auditor General Edward Ouko indicating that most schools are congested.

The schools will be required to have adequate classrooms, desks, chairs, laboratories and teachers to provide quality education.

And despite a request by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) that the government provide funds to recruit 12,000 teachers annually to handle the high population, it was allocated funds to recruit only 7,000 teachers this year.

Mr Ouko in a shocking report tabled before Parliament recently, disclosed that 85 newly upgraded secondary schools did not have adequate dormitories, libraries and teachers among other crucial infrastructure.

“To cope with the situation, some schools had introduced triple-decker beds in the dormitories contrary to the quality assurance standards that require bed to be either single or double-decker,” reads the report.

The report also pointed out that the schools had no library services while others had converted classrooms into libraries. Some schools also had no laboratories and some students have to sit for practical exams in shifts.

Selection starts on Decemeber 3.

Most of the students will be eyeing elite national schools that continue to attract huge number of applications due to their status and facilities with very few students willing to join the upgraded 85 national schools.

All candidates who scored 400 marks will join national schools, irrespective of whether they sat their exams in private or public schools.