Ensure missing Form One students join school
All is not well in the education sector despite the recent attempts to carry out comprehensive reforms. The 2023 Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examination candidates should, in keeping with the government’s 100 per cent transition, have by now all joined Form One. Since schools reopened on January 15, thousands of students admitted to Form One have not reported. There are fears that they risk dropping out.
How could the young people just disappear? Unlike in the first days of this term, when there was a lot of excitement, there has been little activity. Basic Education Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang says that just over 70 per cent of the 1, 400, 329 learners admitted to Form One have reported. He now plans to borrow from the precedent set by former Education CSs Fred Matiang’i and George Magoha, who vigorously ensured that all parents were sensitised to send their children to school. Education is a constitutional right that all children must enjoy.
The current officials are planning a mopping-up campaign next week to locate all those admitted to Form One, but who have not turned up. A really shocking revelation is that 175, 748 learners, who joined Form One in 2020 did not complete secondary education last year.
Where could this large number of young people have gone? However, PS Kipsang is happy that the transition from primary to junior secondary school has been smooth. He thinks it is because of retaining the Grade 7 learners in their old schools instead of sending them away to far-away institutions.
Poverty has been fingered as the key reason for the high dropout rate. This is not quite convincing as these students and their parents have access to bursaries and scholarships. Could this be an indication that these programmes are not working well enough? Education CS Ezekiel Machogu and his team, teachers, parents and other stakeholders should join hands to help resolve this crisis.
The 100 per cent transition is a great policy that must be stridently enforced.
