County and National Schools to be Abolished Beginning Next Year
County and National Schools to be Abolished Beginning Next Year. The competition for national schools by parents may end if the recommendations provided by the task force on education reforms are included in the final report.
The council for educational reform seeks to replace the present system of categorizing schools with one that emphasizes routes more.
The Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms (PWPER) has issued a draft report advising the ministry to stop utilizing the current system of classifying schools.
If the suggestions are incorporated into the final report, there won’t be any national schools, Extra-County schools, County schools, or Sub-County schools.
The team has recommended that schools be set up in accordance with the career paths for STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), social science, the arts, and sports.
The specifics are contained in a draft report of the Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms (PWPER).
If the plans are accepted, the Ministry of Education would be required to carry out an audit to ascertain the quantity and distribution of public secondary schools around the country over the following six months.
Additionally, the ministry must create standards within six months for classifying schools according to vocational paths while making sure that every area has access to all of the options.
As a result, there won’t be a geographic disparity in the number of schools that offer the three courses across the country.
Additionally, within a year, the ministry will be required to update the regulations governing the establishment of low-cost boarding primary schools.
Additionally, the preliminary research recommends that the government promote the development of reasonably priced boarding primary schools in underserved regions and update the infrastructure at current Sub County schools that provide the three courses.
The recommendations are still being modified before the president is presented with the report.
The Basic Education Act of 2013 establishes these categories for both public and private institutions. The ownership of the school, the kind of lodging (day, boarding, or mixed day and boarding), the gender of the students, and the presence of special needs are further classification factors.
The Basic Education Curium Framework (BECF) includes provisions for the three Senior School routes.
According to Vision 2030 and the BECF, about 60% of Senior School students are anticipated to enroll in STEM-related sectors.
25% of students will be enrolled in the social sciences, with 15% of students going down the athletic and artistic courses.
The task force members discovered that these three strategies necessitate a new senior school classification.
According to the group’s sources from the task force, more clustering will enhance equity and inclusion.
According to The Standard, concerns about the current categorization of schools were addressed after stakeholder consultation.
The current clusters, according to Kenyans, promote marginalization and unequal resource allocation.
Kenyans also criticized the differences between national schools, Extra County schools, County and Sub County schools.
County and National Schools to be Abolished Beginning Next Year
It also became apparent that the current categorization was detrimental to the day schools with modest student enrollments.
Based on this, the reform team discovered that the majority of sub-county schools lacked the infrastructure or amenities required to promote effective learning.
Sub-county schools are the name given to day schools in cities and other important urban centers. Their catchment region is the host County.
A new regulation that the government is presently implementing requires all students attending Sub-County (secondary day) schools to enroll in the nearby high schools where they can commute on a daily basis.
The draught report asserts that although national, extra county, and county schools admit students with greater exam results, they also receive better funding, have better facilities, and have access to better educational resources.
In order to increase educational standards, foster social cohesion, and advance national unity, national schools were primarily designed as centers of excellence in education.
They have a completely national student body and are boarding schools. The ministry selects the top achievers by county in this field using a quota system.
It may occasionally be the top two boys and top two girls, depending on the quota. The assurance of admission to national schools for all applicants with a grade of 400 or better also depends on merit.