The Ministry of Education is considering the possibility of postponing the reporting deadline for the Grade 10 students after over 700,000 pupils did not show up at the senior secondary schools just a few hours before the official cut-off, thus raising alarm over an impending educational crisis and at the same time revealing the deep-rooted structural problems in the country’s transition under the Competency-Based Curriculum.
With the deadline coming up very soon, government statistics indicate big differences in the rates of reporting in different types of schools. National schools have the highest turnout, with about 90 percent of students who have been placed already being there on time.
On the other hand, sub-county and extra-county schools are very far behind, with some areas having reporting rates of less than 40 percent, while the clock is still ticking and hundreds of thousands of placements are still unfilled.
Basic Education Principal Secretary Julius Bitok admitted the ministry’s inability to cover the whole area after visiting the admissions office at Alliance Boys High School. Bitok maintained that the ministry had enough resources to take in all the 1.1 million students assigned but admitted that high costs and difficult transportation have kept many people at home.
“We are sure that at the end of this process all the students will have been placed,” he said, adding that larger schools with higher capacities in Category Four will take in a lot of the latecomers.
Parents along with education stakeholders have pointed out the reasons for the low participation, one of which is the high costs that come with it.
Such costs include uniforms, textbooks, and supplies, which, altogether, could raise the cost of reporting by Sh20,000 to Sh50,000—a burden that many households claim they cannot bear. Besides these, some have reasons like long distances to schools and the lack of skilled teachers and facilities as the main reasons for not enrolling their kids in schools.
To address the situation, the government is mulling over the idea of a longer reporting deadline, which would make sure that the new educational system in Kenya would not have any victims among Grade 10 students as far as the first intake is concerned.
The officials have been encouraging parents to take the places in the senior schools that are currently open and have promised that the transfers where the capacity is will be supported by the mechanisms that are already in place.
The closing date is fast approaching, and the Ministry of Education is under increasing pressure to make a quick decision. It is said by the observers that the policy of 100% transition by the government might not be effective, and the gap in access to senior secondary education would be widened if the reporting timeline is not extended.
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