An education based lobby group is now recommending junior secondary school learners to be placed in sub county schools.
Usawa Agenda made the recommendation to the Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms on Friday.
The organization Executive Director Emmanuel Manyasa said the remaining Form learners should then fit in other school levels.
This means the Form 1s will be placed in County, extra county and national schools.
” This is unpopular, but necessary. First, it will enable most grade 7 learners to attend schools closer to their homes,” Manyasa said.
The lobbyist added that the placement of Grade 6 learners will reduce the cost of transition.
Manyasa further wanted the national examinations council to do away with the upcoming Grade 6 national summative assessment.
“It enables the country to start separating senior and junior secondary schools, since they require different levels of facilities,” he added.
Manyasa responded to most parents’ concerns in terms of hosting Grade 7 learners in secondary schools.
Most parents had cited fear of allowing 11-13 year old children mingle with older secondary school students.
“Recruit the promised 58,000 teachers deliberately for middle school – grades four to nine and do so immediately,” he said.
President William Ruto had promised to hire 116,000 teachers for two financial years.
Manyasa said the government should use the opening school window to train the newly hired teachers.
“The in-service teachers already trained on grades four to six content should also be taken through this training,” he said.
The working party was mandated to, among others, look into a review of policies in CBC amid indications that President Ruto could reverse some of them.
They include the implementation of aspects guiding the competency-based approach including but not limited to value-based education, community service learning, parental empowerment and engagement.
The team will also evaluate the assessment of learners, the quality assurance and the standards of CBC.
