Kindiki orders chiefs to get learners yet to report to Form One and Junior High
Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki unveils a plaque after officially opening the newly built Mwanamwinga Division Assistant County Commissioner's office in Kilifi County on February 22, 2023. The CS is in the region to also meet with the regional security heads and local administrators.
National Government Administration Officers (NGAOs) have been put on notice over unsatisfactory transition of learners to junior secondary school (JSS) and Form One.
Interior cabinet secretary Kithure Kindiki yesterday directed the officers to find learners who are yet to join school, in a blow to the government policy of 100 per cent transition at all levels of education.
Although the Ministry of Education has not yet given official figures, it is estimated that hundreds of thousands of learners have not yet joined Grade 7 and Form One due to various reasons.
Learners’ admission data is captured in real-time on the National Education Management Information System (Nemis).
“We want all the children to go to school. That is one of the responsibilities cut out for our administrators, including the deputy county commissioners, assistant county commissioners, chiefs, and assistant chiefs,” Prof Kindiki said.
He was speaking at a public baraza at Gotani Trading Centre in Kilifi County.
The government employs a multi-agency approach to ensure that learners do not drop out of school at the transition points.
Unlike his predecessor, George Magoha who would lead the mobilisation drives across the country, the current Education CS Ezekiel Machogu has a different style.
Also missing are the weekly updates on reporting of the learners.
Prof Kindiki observed that the region has persistently recorded low student rates and tasked the administrators to engage other law enforcement agencies and education field officers to ensure all the transitioning learners are accounted for by the end of April.
Cultural practices
A total of 1,233,852 candidates sat for the 2022 Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examinations with all qualifying for admission to Form One while 1,253,577 undertook the Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA) to proceed to JSS.
Some of the reasons that have been cited for dropping include lack of school fees, early marriages, retrogressive cultural practices, drug abuse as well as involvement in informal manual labour.
Recently, there has been an uproar over illegal levies imposed by some school heads for learners joining Grade 7 and Form One. Parents complain that the levies and other demands have pushed up the cost of education beyond the reach of many of them.
Mr Machogu has since declared the extra levies illegal and threatened action on teachers found to be flouting Ministry of Education directives.
According to Prof Kindiki, all students joining JSS in Lamu County have reported while only 74 per cent of those joining Form One have been registered.
Night vigils
Taita Taveta County has recorded 96 per cent transition to Form One and 80 per cent to JSS while in Tana River County, 99 percent of Grade 6 learners and 82 percent of last year’s KCPE candidates have transitioned.
Mombasa County has transitioned 83 of students to Form One and 92 per cent to JSS, while Kwale has registered only 63 in Form One and 86 percent in JSS.
In Kilifi, 31 percent of learners are yet to join Form One, with 93 percent already enrolled in JSS.
“We must make sure that the figures I have read for you improve. I want to come here in the month of April and find 100 percent transition in both Form One and Junior Secondary School,” Prof Kindiki said.
The CS ordered a crackdown on the organiSers of night vigils before and after funerals commonly referred to as disco-matanga, which have been blamed for contributing to early pregnancies and school dropout in the region.
“If disco-matanga is all about exposing our young girls to risky indulgences and encouraging teen pregnancies, then it will stop. We must stop it, and we won’t negotiate with anyone on this,” the CS said.
