Primary Schools To Be Renamed Under New Education Ministry Guidelines

The Ministry of Education has announced a revision of primary schools’ names in the country as the implementation of Junior Secondary Schools (JSS) under the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) takes shape.

Under the new guidelines, the ministry says comprehensive schools – those with both primary and junior secondary – shall adopt the name of the primary school in which they are domiciled, “except in special circumstances”.

This means a school currently called ‘Mwendapole Primary School’, for instance, shall be called ‘Mwendapole School (Primary and JSS)’.

“For the purpose of the Bank accounts, the Primary School and Junior Secondary Schools shall have separate Bank Accounts,” the ministry says.

As for school uniform, the JSS leadership has been tasked with determining the uniform for their schools in consultation with their respective stakeholders.

The ministry however warned school heads against directing parents on specific uniform stores to purchase from.

“At a minimum, one pair of uniform is recommended per learner. Uniform shall be the responsibility of parents and no school shall direct parents where to purchase the uniform,” the ministry said.

“No JSS learners shall be excluded for failure to afford a school uniform and the JSS uniform shall be sensitive to the cultural and religious values of the respective communities. Special consideration SHALL be made in view of different climatic conditions,” it added.

JSS students shall be taking 12 core subjects and one or two optional subjects. The core subjects are English, Kiswahili or KSL, Mathematics, Integrated Science, Health Education, Pre-technical and Pre-career education, Social Studies,  Religious Education (CRE, IRE or HRE), Business Studies, Agriculture, Life skills, Sports and Physical Education.

The pool of optional subjects comprises Visual Arts, Performing Arts, Home Science, Computer Science, Foreign Languages (German, French or Mandarin) Arabic, Kenyan Sign Language and Indigenous Language.

In the meantime, learners at the Pre-Vocational level will be assessed in 9 subjects; Communication, Social and Literacy Skills; Daily Living Skills; Mathematics Activities; Music and Movement; Religious Education; Christian Religious Education; Hindu Religious Education; Islamic Religious Education; Physical and Health Education; Hygiene, Nutrition and Safety; Environmental Activities, and Social Studies.

Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu previously said students transitioning to JSS will not be required to pay any school fees as the government has already set aside Ksh.15,000 for each of the over 1 million Grade 6 pupils who sat their KPSEA exams in November last year.

Machogu said that only schools with boarding wings will be allowed to charge fees.

A total of 1,287,597 Grade Six pupils sat their KPSEA exams between November 28 and November 30.

The examination results were however not used for placement of learners in JSS but as part of the process of monitoring learner progress.

President Ruto directed that the examination be used to scrutinise learning progress and provide feedback to education sector players on areas of CBC that require intervention.

In his December 1 directive, he advised that the junior secondary schools – Grade 7, Grade 8 and Grade 9 – be domiciled in the existing primary schools.