Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu has asked Junior Secondary Schools to allow learners from disadvantaged families to use their primary school uniforms.
Machogu has said some parents have been struggling to buy new uniforms for children transitioning from grade six to JSS due to the high cost of living.
Such parents, he said, should be allowed to have their children admitted to give them time to get the new uniforms, instructing school heads not to send learners home over the issue.
Last year, 1,282,272 learners sat for their Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA) and are set to join JSS.
Machogu said the government is aiming for 100 percent transition and has released Sh46 billion in the last two weeks for the education sector out of which Sh7.8 billion was channeled towards JSS while Sh4.7 billion went to primary schools and Sh16 billion went to secondary schools.
“No secondary, primary or JSS school should claim it does not have money because funds were released two weeks ago,” he said.
Machogu who was speaking at Mumbi grounds in Murang’a county during the county education day on Sunday further asked school heads not to charge parents for construction of new classrooms.
He said the 8-4-4 system of education had established enough classrooms for grade seven and eight, and that the government is making plans to ensure more classrooms are put in place for grade nine by next year.
He explained that the government has issued Sh3.39 billion conditional grants to all 290 constituencies to construct classrooms.
A further Sh9 billion has been provided by the World Bank to construct 9,000 classrooms this year.
“By next year, we will have 15,025 classrooms that will be enough to accommodate grade nine. There will never be a time that there won’t be enough classrooms,” he said.
Machogu further noted that a final decision on the 4,000 irregularities reported during KCSE examinations will be made in the next two weeks.
Heads of schools where the irregularities were reported are set to appear before a committee set up by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) and Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC).
“I want to laud Murang’a county because out of the 4,000 cases, none was from here. This shows that you don’t have to indulge in irregularities to excel,” he said.
Murang’a county recorded 36 As and 270 A-s.
He urged parents to ensure candidates who did not achieve C+ join tertiary institutions such as Tvets saying the Kenya Kwanza administration is putting measures in place to provide employment opportunities.
The education ministry, he noted, has set aside Sh3.39 billion shillings to offer scholarships to needy university students and another Sh10.9 billion for Higher Education Loans Board (HELB).