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The government has extended the timeline for providing classrooms for  Grade Nine students by another 30 days, after the reopening of schools overtook its earlier target date.

Within this time, school heads were urged to look for alternative spaces where the learners could continue with their studies until the construction of the new learning blocks was completed.

Admitting some Grade 9 learners don’t have classrooms even as they reported back to school, Basic Education Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang said that the pupils can learn in turns to ensure that learning does not stop.

“We are going to have short-term mitigating solutions to give us more time to finalise on any school where we are putting up a classroom. Some of the mitigating factors is consolidating on classrooms,” Kipsang said.

The PS noted that congestion will be expected within the duration, but will persist for a short while as the Ministry of Education races against time to ensure that Grade 9s are settled by the end of January.

“Within this short time of the next 30 days, we want to make sure that we don’t disrupt learning. In some situations, where congestion will not allow, we can have a multi-shift within the time. If there is a class that is having outdoor activities, then within that time there can be another group that is optimizing those classrooms,” PS Kipsang tipped schools.

The practicality of such intervention is questionable, given that outdoor activities in the first term are limited since during this time, most teachers focus on settling the pupils in their new classes.

Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba while supervising the reopening of schools in Kajiado County and launching Grade 9 classrooms downplayed the challenge posed by lack of adequate infrastructure saying only 1500 classrooms were yet to be completed.

“We have ensured that the necessary infrastructure is in place including the construction of the 16000 classrooms that were required to allow the transition to be smooth. As a Ministry we have managed to do a total of 14500 classrooms including those that we are partnering with National Government CDF programmes meaning we have delivered over 90 per cent of the classrooms,” Ogamba said.

Unhoused learners

Without giving details on how the government intended to accommodate unhoused learners, CS Ogamba said that he would visit schools where the classrooms are incomplete to see what measures are being taken to ensure a smooth transition.

Two weeks before the opening of schools, the government had assured parents that it was fully prepared for the transition to Grade 9 in January 2025 and that it put in place all necessary measures to ensure a smooth and successful process.

The government said that the construction of 16,000 classrooms to be used by the Grade 9 nationwide was being done in three phases.

As the country ushered in Christmas, Government Spokesman Isaac Mwaura stated that the first phase of 3,500 classrooms was complete, while the second phase of 7,500 classrooms was 57 per cent complete.

Mwaura said that the final phase of 5,000 classrooms was underway and was expected to be completed by December 2024.

Additionally, Mwaura stated that the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) had recruited 56,000 teachers on permanent contracts while another 20,000 intern teachers were to be hired by January 2025.

“Ongoing retraining is also equipping teachers with the skills needed to implement the new Grade 9 CBC curriculum effectively.  In preparation for the transition to Grade 9, the Ministry of Education has conducted pilot assessments to help teachers familiarize themselves with the new assessment categories. This ensures that teachers are ready to effectively assess students under the CBC framework in the upcoming academic year,” the Government Spokesman said in his last media briefing of 2024.

Elsewhere, parents in Kisii County have appealed to the government to complete the construction of Grade nine classrooms in primary schools to foster their education.

Consequently, they have implored schools without Grade nine classrooms to liaise with secondary school Principals in neighbouring schools to use those left vacant by form one students who have since moved to form two.

Led by Alice Osero, they also asked MPs to construct more classrooms with the National Government Constituency Development Fund (NG-CDF) to accommodate the increasing number of students. “We know Junior Secondary Schools are domiciled in primary schools. We want the students to be accommodated in secondary schools temporarily as they wait for the classrooms under construction in primary schools to be completed” Osero stated.

She challenged Junior Secondary School (JSS) Heads without neighbouring secondary schools to use extra buildings within the school or tents as classrooms as they await the construction of Grade nine classrooms to be completed.