Top national schools to open day wings

What you need to know:

The move aims to boost capacity and delink admission to bed space under the free secondary education plan expected to increase Form One enrolment to above one million students.
The Ministry of Education announced that all the 993,718 candidates who sat this year’s Kenya Certificate of Primary Education are expected to join Form One.
Public schools are worried about a lack of cash allocation to build more classrooms for the additional students.

Top national secondary schools such as Nairobi School, St Georges, Lenana and Moi Girls are among 19 traditional boarding institutions that will open day wings from next month.

The move aims to boost capacity and delink admission to bed space under the free secondary education plan expected to increase Form One enrolment to above one million students.

The Ministry of Education announced that all the 993,718 candidates who sat this year’s Kenya Certificate of Primary Education are expected to join Form One.

25pc rise

This marks a 25 per cent rise over the 790,680 students admitted to secondary schools last year.

The ministry said the opening of day wings in boarding schools would start in Nairobi before being introduced to other counties.

About Sh25 billion has been allocated for the free secondary education plan for the six months to June amid concerns over inadequate teachers, classrooms and materials that do not match the numbers as well as poor standards.

Education Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang Thursday declined to disclose finer details of implementing the programme.

“Let’s wait, we’re still engaging with other stakeholders on how the programme will be implemented,” he said.

READ: LUESBY: Is boarding school good for children?

Pilot programme

But the Business Daily has learnt that several schools had been approached to pilot the programme.

Public schools are worried about a lack of cash allocation to build more classrooms for the additional students.

Safety and discipline of students in an environment where day scholars and boarders are mixed has also stoked debate.

Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers secretary-general Akelo Misori criticised the decision, saying it’s being driven by populist politics.

READ: County schools to admit 63pc of candidates in free learning plan

More day schools

The government, he said, should construct more day schools in Nairobi since there is space.

He said the decision to force national schools to have day wings would create logistics challenges for principals, especially maintaining discipline among the students.

The government is also hoping to develop more secondary schools through the Constituency Development Fund, which receives in excess of Sh25 billion annually.