Parents and Boards of Management (BOMs) will decide on junior secondary school uniform to be used starting February this year.
Making the announcement on Monday 16, January 2023 the Education CS Ezekiel Machogu said this will be done to distinguish the junior secondary section from the primary and the 8.4.4 secondary school sections.
“Although learners will join Grade Seven in the schools where they were enrolled in Grade Six, there is need to distinguish the Junior Secondary School section. As a result, a decision has been made that parents and Boards of Management agree on the new uniforms for Junior Secondary School learners,” said Machogu.
The CS further schools to have elaborate admission processes in place for Junior Secondary School learners through NEMIS.
He said an admission register must be in place with proper induction and orientation programme.
The CS also warned public schools against charging any admission fee for any Grade Seven learner due to the 100 per cent transition policy in the same school where the learners were enrolled in Grade Six.
A total of 1,253,577 Grade 6 learners sat the 2022 KPSEA in 32,555 centres across the country and will transit to Junior Secondary School.
The Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec) has already released the results for the learners in schools.
Machogu directed the Knec to collaborate with the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) and Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to assist schools to properly interpret the reports for learners and parents.
He asked Knec, KICD and TSC to provide feedback on the same to help in the ongoing curriculum reforms.
“I also direct the Council to hold joint discussions with the KICD and TSC on the national KPSEA reports with a view to providing feedback on the CBC curriculum that can inform ongoing curriculum reviews,” he said.
President William Ruto directed that the National Treasury set aside Ksh15,000 per learner as capitation to facilitate free learning in all public junior secondary schools.
Government will spend Ksh9.6 Billion for the learners in Junior Secondary School this calendar year. This means that no school will charge any fees for Grade 7 learners unless such schools have boarding wings.
TSC is currently recruiting at least 30,000 new teachers, the majority of whom will be attending to learners in the Junior Secondary School level.
The learners joining Grade Seven shall report to their respective Junior Secondary Schools on 30th January 2023.
The Ministry is currently carrying out a comprehensive countrywide assessment of all public and private schools to determine their readiness to admit learners to Junior Secondary School.
The exercise, which began on 9th January, 2023 is set to end on 20th January, 2023.
The assessment considers, among other factors, whether the respective school has adequate land to host the Junior Secondary School level; availability of buildings to be used as classrooms and laboratories; and whether the school has adequate water and power supply.
As of Friday 13th, January 2023, a total of 14,589 public and private schools had been assessed.
Of these, 13,221 schools had been approved to host the Junior Secondary Schools.
