NAIROBI, Kenya – The Ministry of Education has acknowledged facing significant challenges as it prepares for the rollout of the first Grade 9 cohort.
Speaking on Monday, Education Principal Secretary (PS) Belio Kipsang’ highlighted the critical shortage of classrooms, which the Ministry must address urgently to avoid disrupting learning.
“We will have to improvise to ensure that we don’t disrupt learning,” Kipsang’ remarked, acknowledging that some classrooms will experience overcrowding for about 30 days while construction of new classrooms continues.
To mitigate the immediate impact, the Ministry is considering multi-shift learning arrangements.
“In some situations where the congestion will not allow, we can have a multi-shift within the time where, when there is a class doing outdoor activity, another group can be optimizing the classroom,” Kipsang’ explained.
The Ministry plans to allocate Ksh.16 billion to complete the necessary classroom construction.
So far, 13,500 classrooms have been completed out of the 16,000 required, with 10,500 built by the Ministry and an additional 3,000 by the National Government-Constituency Development Fund (NG-CDF).
The Ministry is also distributing resources to support the new Grade 9 classes, including 9.9 million books and the deployment of 46,000 teachers on internship, alongside another cohort of 20,000 teachers.
However, Kipsang’ emphasized that the number of teachers remains insufficient and that more recruitment is needed to match the growing number of learners.
This rollout is part of the broader implementation of the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) in Junior Secondary School (JSS), a program that has faced various challenges, including poor funding, inadequate preparation, and sudden changes to subject clusters.
Concerns persist that the government may not be fully prepared to accommodate Grade 9 students by 2025 due to ongoing issues with facilities and teacher shortages.
Speaking on Monday, Education Principal Secretary (PS) Belio Kipsang’ highlighted the critical shortage of classrooms, which the Ministry must address urgently to avoid disrupting learning.
“We will have to improvise to ensure that we don’t disrupt learning,” Kipsang’ remarked, acknowledging that some classrooms will experience overcrowding for about 30 days while construction of new classrooms continues.
To mitigate the immediate impact, the Ministry is considering multi-shift learning arrangements.
“In some situations where the congestion will not allow, we can have a multi-shift within the time where, when there is a class doing outdoor activity, another group can be optimizing the classroom,” Kipsang’ explained.
The Ministry plans to allocate Ksh.16 billion to complete the necessary classroom construction.
So far, 13,500 classrooms have been completed out of the 16,000 required, with 10,500 built by the Ministry and an additional 3,000 by the National Government-Constituency Development Fund (NG-CDF).
The Ministry is also distributing resources to support the new Grade 9 classes, including 9.9 million books and the deployment of 46,000 teachers on internship, alongside another cohort of 20,000 teachers.
However, Kipsang’ emphasized that the number of teachers remains insufficient and that more recruitment is needed to match the growing number of learners.
This rollout is part of the broader implementation of the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) in Junior Secondary School (JSS), a program that has faced various challenges, including poor funding, inadequate preparation, and sudden changes to subject clusters.
Concerns persist that the government may not be fully prepared to accommodate Grade 9 students by 2025 due to ongoing issues with facilities and teacher shortages.
