JSS roll out headache top on agenda as head teachers meet kick off

Challenges rocking transition of learners in the Junior Secondary School are set to dominate the annual conference of primary school head teachers in Mombasa that is set to kick off today.

Other issues set to take centre stage include security of teachers, shortage of staff in some learning areas, financing of free primary education, and challenges in books distribution. This will be the 20th edition of the Kenya Primary School Heads Association (Kepsha) that takes place at Sheikh Zayed Hall in Mombasa.

Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu, who is scheduled to inaugurate the conference tomorrow alongside Principal Secretary in the State Department of Early Learning and Basic Education Belio Kipsang and Teachers’ Service Commission (TSC) CEO Nancy Macharia will be required to provide clarity on government’s plan to address hitches and gaps in CBC which is “fast taking root.”

In a pre- conference press briefing at Sheikh Zayed yesterday, Kepsha chair Johnson Nzioka (pictured), said of particular concern is the infrastructural gap that needs to be bridged to facilitate the new curriculum.

Laboratories

“We understand that CBC and JSS in particular started taking root this year and there were some gaps that needed to be addressed. And one of the gaps is the infrastructural gap which we are appealing to the government to address. We expect things like the issue of laboratories in some schools which cannot access the facilities in the nearby secondary schools to be addressed,” Nzioka explained.

The Kepsha chair noted that demand for more classrooms in primary schools is expected to grow as the current system progresses to Grade Nine in a few years to come.

The school heads who arrived in Mombasa yesterday will have a four-day conference starting today, to Friday, November 10.