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The Ministry of Education has warned schools and parents against registering Grade Seven learners to sit the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE), saying action will be taken against those found culpable.

Education Cabinet Secretary, Ezekiel Machogu said the Ministry will not allow this unfair competition.

“The Ministry will not allow learners to sit for an exam whose curriculum is different from the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC),” said the CS, when he met with Regional, County and Sub County Directors of Education.

Education Principal Secretary, Belio Kipsang also issued a circular on the transfer of Grade Seven learners terming it as illegality and presenting a serious breach of ethics and integrity of schools.

“The Ministry has been made aware of attempts by some primary schools to register Grade Seven learners for 2023 KCPE. All field officers are asked to validate all registration data for KCPE and point out any abnormal increase in KCPE candidature against 2022 class enrolment,” the PS warned.

He directed the field officers to liaise with the officers from State Department for Citizen Services on issues of birth certificate issuance that are abnormal.

“Any school found to engage in such malpractice must be reported to the Ministry for action,” Kipsang said.

He said the illegality involves the falsification of school records, birth records and bio data of Grade Seven learners, and attempts to change or obtain new birth certificates by parents to aid in the malpractice.

Illegal levies

Other illegalities the PS cited are a generation of new Unique Personal Identification (UPI) for continuing learners, presenting Grade Seven as Class 8 learners and facilitating transfers of Grade Seven into other schools and presenting them as class eight transfers.

This came as Machogu also directed the Ministry’s education officials to submit names of schools charging illegal fees.

 “The education field officers should furnish my office with names of schools charging illegal levies on parents because secondary schools should not charge fees beyond the ones the Ministry of Education has stipulated,” the CS directed.

The CS also insisted that parents should not pay any kind of fees, saying that the Government allocation of Sh15,000 will meet all requirements of JSS.

He said that the Grade Seven learners should use the desks they would have used in class 7.

Last week, Kipsang warned that no school should issue alternative fees or structure other than that approved by the Ministry.

He said the Ministry continues to receive complaints from aggrieved parents on unauthorised levies imposed by head teachers, especially admission fees, purchase of desks and lunch money in complete contravention of Government policies and directives.

“The Ministry has recently released guidelines for the implementation of JSS. At the same time, the Government has allocated a capitation grant of Sh15,000 per child,” said the PS in a circular to Regional, County and Sub County Directors of Education.

“You are directed to ensure that no public school charges unauthorized levies such as admission fees, desks and lunch unless the school has a previously authorized lunch programme for the whole school,” he added.

Also in the meeting yesterday, the CS asked the field officers to make sure that there is a 100 per cent transition of learners from Grade Six to Seven, saying that they should work together with Interior Ministry officials to ensure that no child is left at home for whatever reason.