The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) is set to train 116,024 secondary school teachers in preparation for the junior secondary school Grade 9 class.
At least 60,000 secondary school teachers underwent training in handling Grade 7 and 8 in April this year. The Commission also trained 120,000 primary school teachers in handling grade 6 learners in the month of December last year.
The training of teachers is organized by the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) and the Teachers Service Commission (TSC).
Junior Secondary School involves Grade Seven, Eight and Nine with the first class of the CBC now in Grade 6.
Grade 6 learners will join Grade 7 in January 2023 and currently, the selection exercise for Grade 7 Junior Secondary School is going on and will be completed by the 10th of September this year.
According to the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD), the curriculum design for the JSS classes are ready with the intake of Grade 7 learners looming.
The current government has invested a lot of resources in the CBC and with more than 10 million children having been enrolled, the next regime cannot think of abolishing it,” said Prof George Magoha.
The compulsory in JSS include English, Kiswahili or the Kenya Sign Language for learners who are deaf, Mathematics, Integrated Science, Health Education, Pre-Technical and Pre-Career Education, Social Studies, Religious Education (whereby learners will choose one of CRE, IRE and HRE), Busines Studies, Agriculture, Life Skills Education, Sports and Physical Education.
The optional subjects include Visual Arts, Performing Arts, Home Science, Computer Science, Foreign Languages, German, French, Mandarin, Arabic, Indigenous Languages and the Kenyan Sign Language.
Around 1,268,830 Grade 6 learners are set to sit for the Kenya Primary School Assessment (KPSEA) exams between the 28th and 30th of November 2022. They shall then be placed in both public and private junior secondary schools during the placement exercise.
According to the Cabinet Secretary for Education Prof George Magoha private schools are going to have 5,000 classes ready for a smooth transition to the new curriculum.
According to the Ministry of Education, more private and public schools are going to be approved if they meet the required standards for the new curriculum.
Magoha also called on parents to select day junior secondary schools that are near their homes. However, he added that they are free to choose prestigious schools that are far away from their homes if they wish to.
Assessment outcomes of the KPSEA will guide the transition of learners from Upper Primary to Junior Secondary School.
KPSEA will be a combination of learner’s scores attained from the School Based Assessments (SBA) administered in Grade 4, 5 and 6 and the National summative assessment to be administered in November this year.
School-Based Assessments for each of Grades 4, 5 and 6 will constitute 20% with the SBAs cumulatively accounting for 60% of the scores that will be used in reporting as learners transit to Junior Secondary School.
At the moment of writing, KNEC has administered SBAs to the 2022 Grade 6 class at Grade 4 in 2020 and at Grade 5 in 2021.
KNEC started the administration of SBAs to Grade 6 learners on 18th July 2022 and they shall be completed on 9th of September, 2022.
The final summative assessment (KPSEA) will also be administered to all the 2022 Grade 6 learners between the 28th and 30th of November 2022.
For the November summative assessment, KNEC will assess thirteen subjects that are offered at the Upper primary level using five papers of multiple choice questions that include the following subjects:
Mathematics;
English language;
Kiswahili/Kenya Sign Language;
Integrated Science (combines 4 subjects): Science and technology, Agriculture, Home Science, Physical and Health Education
Creative arts and social studies (Combines 4 subjects): Social Studies, CRE/IRE/HRE, Art and Craft, Music
