Grade 7 students are expected to report to their respective primary schools on Monday, January 30 to pursue their Junior Secondary education.
Students who could not be domiciled in their primary schools will have to go to new schools after the Ministry of Education’s move to consolidate schools that did not meet the junior secondary school hosting criteria.
However, the move has become stressful for some parents as their grade 7 children have been moved to schools that are beyond the two-kilometer radius. Hence making it difficult for them to access the schools for junior secondary education.
As such a section of parents from Elgeyo Marakwet County do not agree with the verdict from the ministry of education.
“We were shocked to hear that Seret Primary will not host JSS. Why? We have met a lot of qualifications, but we are told to take students to Chamnada, 7 Kilometers away. And the road is impassable during rainy seasons,” says one concerned parent.
The parents have urged the ministry of education and their local leadership to intervene.
Also Read: Over 13,000 Public and Private Institutions Approved to Host JSS
Nonetheless, many institutions have still not identified uniforms the JSS students will be wearing. Thus, crippling the preparations and exposing parents to what they say are exploitative business practices in schools.
“We are being told to buy uniforms in school, yet the prices are high. We are also required to pay admission fees,” says Rose Ananda.
Likewise, a section of parents has also criticized what they say is the short period accorded to them to get everything for the opening of the JSS.
Moreover, while the ministry of education has promised to dispatch textbooks to all public schools, parents still must provide their children with exercise books for the expanded curriculum that sees the number of subjects offered at JSS increase to fourteen.
Furthermore, the ministry has released funds for tuition for children in public schools and instructed schools not to charge any extra levies in public schools. However, some parents say this is not being observed.
