Secondary school heads have revived a push to scrap boarding schools to address indiscipline and congestion in schools ahead of the January junior high transition.
The Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Association (Kesha) says day schools will allow parents to be actively involved in learners’ education in line with aspirations of the competence-based curriculum (CBC).
This means that learners will attend their neighbouring local schools instead of having to scramble for limited spaces at national and extra county boarding secondary schools.
“Rethinking boarding secondary schools is something that should be brought for discussion in Parliament and a direction given on the way forward,” said Kesha chairman Indimuli Kahi yesterday during the World Teachers’ Day celebrations.
The first cohort of CBC will be joining Junior Secondary schools in January with parents already showing a preference for top-performing schools, majority of which are boarding schools, replicating what has been the norm during Form One selection.
Under CBC, elementary education is divided into pre-primary and primary education, taking two and six years respectively. Junior secondary starts from Grade Seven up to Grade Nine and will be domiciled in existing secondary schools as opposed to primary schools.
