The government will from January 2023 do away with boarding primary schools for pupils learning in grades 1 to 9.
New Basic Education Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang' revealed on Tuesday that parents will have to take their primary schools kids to day schools.
The net effect of the radical policy means that pupils transiting to Junior Secondary Schools will join day schools in their home areas.
“We must create a way in which we can be with our children and the only way is through day schooling. The first nine years of learning that are Grades 1 to 9, the direction that the government is taking will be day schooling,” Kipsang' said.
Already the government has ordered that JSS be domiciled at primary schools, meaning that pupils will continue schooling in their current schools – which will now have to be day schools.
Kipsang' said that parents have the primary responsibility as first educators to walk with their children and ensure that they acquire the right values they desire them to have.
“We cannot outsource our responsibility as we parents, we only co-parent with teachers but we cannot outsource parenting from the teachers,” Kipsang' said.
“Going forward, day schooling will be the direction, that’s the only way we shall be able to engage with our children.”
Kipsang' made the revelations when he represented President William Ruto for the official opening ceremony of the 18th Kenya Primary School Heads Association (KEPSHA.
The primary school heads are meeting in Mombasa for their Annual General Meeting at the Sheik Zayed Children's Welfare Center.
Kipsang' said that Kenya has the highest percentage of its children globally in boarding schools, standing at 28 per cent.
He said this is against the global rate in most countries which stand at 15 per cent.