Sunday 7 January 2018

National schools directed to begin admitting day scholars


A picture of one of Starehe Boys Centre
A picture of one of Starehe Boys Centre blocks taken on March 3, 2014. Starehe is one of the national schools selected to open up day wings that will start admitting day scholars Thursday. PHOTO| FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP 

4th Jan. 2018

Summary

  • The ministry of Education has directed schools to start admitting Form One students starting Thursday until Monday.
  • The move will boost capacity and delink admission to bed space under the free secondary education plan that is expected to increase Form One enrolment to above one million students.
  • While releasing the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) 2017 results, Dr Matiang’i announced that all the 993,718 candidates are expected to join Form One.

By FAITH NYAMAI 
More by this Author

National schools selected to open up day wings will start admitting day scholars Thursday.
The ministry of Education has directed schools to start admitting Form One students starting Thursday until Monday.
The schools that will be admitting the day scholars are Kenya High School, Starehe Boys Centre, Moi  Forces Academy, Nairobi School, Lenana School, Pangani Girls High School and Moi Girls Secondary School, Nairobi.
Others are Ngara Girls Secondary School, Buruburu Girls High School, Embakasi Girls, Arya Parklands, Nembu Girls High School, Dagoretti High School, Lang’ata Secondary School, Upper Hill, St George’s Girls, State House Girls, Hospital Hill and Ofafa Jericho.
According to the ministry, the move will boost capacity and delink admission to bed space under the free secondary education plan that is expected to increase Form One enrolment to above one million students.
TRANSITION
The opening of day wings is part of the government’s plan to have a 100 per cent transition  from primary to secondary school.
Yesterday, Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i said Treasury had allocated Sh29 billion to facilitate the rolling out of free secondary school education.
While releasing the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) 2017 results, Dr Matiang’i announced that all the 993,718 candidates are expected to join Form One.
The number is a 25 per cent  increase from the students that were admitted to secondary schools last year .
A total of 790,680 students joined secondary schools across the country last year.
CLASSROOMS
The students were admitted amid concerns over number of teachers, classrooms and materials that do not match the numbers as well as poor standards.
The CS said the ministry had established mechanisms to ensure that more students are enrolled in school.
Dr Matiang’i said opening of day wings in existing boarding schools, especially in Nairobi, is meant to maximise the use of available resources as well as delink admission from bed capacity.
Other interventions include expanding capacities of existing schools to create places.
He said the government had dedicated infrastructure grants amounting to Sh6.4 billion to 2,710 regular and 30 special needs secondary schools.
GRANTS
The grants had led to construction of 2,740 classrooms, 349 laboratories and 326 blocks of sanitation facilities, among others.
Some of these facilities are complete while others will be completed this year.
The government is also involved in development of secondary schools through the Constituency Development Fund. However,  the ministry is yet to explain the criteria used to select the schools.
SOURCE

No comments:

Post a Comment