Teachers and parents coercing grade 7 students to avoid CBC
Teachers and parents coercing grade 7 students to avoid CBC. Officials claim that some parents in Garissa are collaborating with instructors to register their Grade 7 pupils for the KCPE exam in order to avoid having to follow the CBC curriculum.
With students in Grade 7, the 6-3-3-4 educational system invented the Junior Secondary School system.
Last year, the government made it mandatory for pupils who took the Grade 6 tests to enroll in JSS in their elementary schools as part of the transition.
These institutions are also home to the last 8-4-4 cohort, who will sit for the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education exam at the conclusion of the year.
The children would enroll in the final class 8, skipping junior secondary and reverting to the prior curriculum as a result of this enrollment.
The deputy county commissioner for Garissa Township, Solomon Chesut, has warned both parents and teachers to stay away from such a plot.
Speaking on behalf of the Equity Bank Elimu Scholarship Program recipients at Garissa High School on Saturday, Chesut asserted that a recent development has seen local primary school teachers collaborating with parents to move children from Grade 6 to Standard 8 in order to avoid the Competency-based curriculum.
Most of the youngsters who took the Grade 6 assessment tests ought to be enrolled in junior secondary schools. Some parents are collaborating with the teachers to bring some of these kids through grade eight, according to what we’ve discovered, Chesut continued.
Your jobs are at danger, and the teachers have been told. Students in grades six through eight cannot register. He warned: “We have a list of a few infamous schools, and we have given the names of those institutions to the investigation agencies for future action.
No one would be spared for illegal acts that had an adverse effect on kids’ lives, Chesut said.
The remarks follow a warning from Yussuf Karayu, the regional coordinator for education, urging county directors of education not to enrol unapproved Grade 7 kids as KCPE candidates.
This is to inform you that, according to the circular, “some unprofessional headteachers are receiving on transfer and enrolling Grade 7 students as 2023 KCPE candidates” without the consent of Ministry of Education staff at the subcounty, county, and regional levels.
“Let it be known that such headteachers would suffer serious penalties, including personal accountability, for registering illegitimate KCPE candidates. The ministry has assigned all pupils, including those in Grade 7, unique personal identification numbers (UPIs), which makes it quite easy to locate such children.
Chesut advised the 1,843 Elimu scholarship recipients in Garissa to take advantage of the potential to learn and enhance the standard of living in their communities.
He also instructed all chiefs and their deputies to ensure that every student successfully transitioned from primary to secondary education.
In order to solve the region’s teacher shortage, Dekow Mohamed, the MP for Garissa Township, advised people to encourage children to enroll in teaching programs.
He also counseled parents to enroll their children in public schools in order to make it easier for them to receive financial aid for their schooling.
“There are parents who enrol their children in private schools, then come back to apply for financial aid or sponsorship. According to Dekow, they forget that these funds are meant for the most vulnerable and underprivileged segments of society.
If you want your kids to be taken seriously, send them to a public school rather than a private one since when they enroll in a private school, it is considered that you are stable financially and can pay the price.
The branch manager of Equity Bank in Garissa, Shadrack Muithya, promoted the creation of a practical system to handle the distribution of scholarships and bursaries.
We need an information system with all students receiving bursaries or scholarships, Muithya said, in order to prevent giving one kid a double scholarship when there are others who can benefit.