Learners in Junior Secondary School will report back to school at the same time as students who will be joining Form 1 this year.
The announcement by Nyeri county director of education Jane Njogu, has cleared the air in regard to the official opening dates for the learners who form the first batch of students under the Competency Based Curriculum.
The last lot of 1.4 million students under the 8-4-4 system sat for their KCPE examination last year.
Njogu says the rest of the students, including those in secondary schools, will report back to school from Monday.
The Ministry of Education is monitoring the situation and will give a comprehensive report after all learners have reported back to school in the county, Njogu added.
“Junior Secondary School (learners) will report (back) with Form 1 students, but the other classes are reporting this week. We are monitoring the opening so we may not be able to give a report now. Maybe by tomorrow (today), once primary schools report, we may be able to know whether there are any issues,” she told KNA.
At least 1.2 million pioneer JSS learners across the country are expected to join Grade 7 under the new CBC system.
On recent calls by JSS intern teachers, urging the government to convert their services into permanent terms, the official said she was not aware of such an issue, since it was not under her docket.
“I am not authorised to comment on the issue of staffing, since the matter lies squarely with the Teachers Service Commission,” she stated.
Towards the end of last year, a section of JSS tutors had threatened to down their tools this year, unless TSC confirmed their employment into permanent and pensionable terms.
They had also complained of too much work and at times being forced to work in lower primary classes, where JSS is currently domiciled.
The government had hired some 46,000 intern teachers last year on contract terms.
Out of this number 21,500 were to teach in JSS on a two-year contract, before being absorbed into the service on permanent terms.
