PS says that Grade Nine will stay in primary school.
Belio Kipsang, the principal secretary for education, ended the discussion yesterday by announcing that Grade Nine will continue to be taught in primary schools.
He further affirmed that the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) will remain unchanged in its framework.
The PS denied rumors that Grade 9 would be transferred to the secondary school division, stating that the matter is not under discussion in the Ministry and that 93% of Kenyans chose, via the presidential working party, for junior school to be housed in primary schools.
He declared that the ministry will meet Kenyans’ expectations and that junior secondary schools, which are currently housed in primary schools, will not alter in the slightest.
“Grades 7, 8, and 9 are the definition of junior schools, and we have no intention of changing that because we lack the means or time to do so.
“How can we get up in the morning and have anything different if 93% of Kenyans expressed the same thing? There is no debate about it; Grade 9 will be held in the junior school’s current location, which is well known to all of us,” the PS stated.
During the stakeholder engagement on the senior school curriculum, he gave the following remarks at the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD).
According to KICD Chief Executive Prof. Charles Ong’ondo, the 2-6-3-3 structure represents the basic education arrangement in which students spend two years in Pre-Primary, six years in Primary, three years in Junior School, and an additional three years in Senior School. This structure is based on cognitive developmental theory.
As previously stated by Ong’ondo, “The years have to match the development milestones of the children who are the targets of the learning system.”
The PS guaranteed that efforts are being made by the Government to guarantee that students have a smooth transition to either higher education or the workforce.
“Although we didn’t have the chance to carry out our current activities while transferring to junior school, I promise that going forward, we will be more equipped to interact with educators and students and understand their expectations,” stated Kipsang.
Positioning and accreditation
Kipsang stated that the Ministry will be implementing 16,000 Grade 9 classrooms in the next days, adding that the CBC implementation is proceeding according to plan.
We are aware of the number of classes needed at each school. He clarified, “We will standardize schools so that the environment they are in prepares them. We want to harmonize our schools so that you know the difference between classrooms and laboratories.”
Additionally, the PS stated that, similar to the Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA) in Grade 6, there will be formative and summative assessments in Grade 9.
He clarified that assessments in Grade 9 do not impede students’ advancement, stating that placement and certification will only be assessed in Grade 12.
Additionally, students in Grade 12 will receive a certificate that will equip them for either continuing on to the next phase of their education or beginning a particular area of their lives.
“Grade 9 is just a transition from one level to the next because it’s just preparing our children to know where they are going to – Sciences, Humanities, or Creative,” he said. “At Grade 12, it will be both placement and certification.”
Kipsang stated that among other things, the stakeholder engagement will discuss the paths and placement of students as they go from Grade 9 to Senior School, which consists of Grades 10, 11, and 12.
