Education
CS Julius Ogamba has said the government has so far constructed 14,500
classrooms for the first cohort of Grade 9 learners.
Speaking on Thursday at Mitihani House in South C, Ogamba said they are set to achieve 16,000 classrooms in January.
“This has been made possible by the government’s generous disbursement of Sh11 billion to schools across the country for the construction of 11,000 Grade 9 classrooms,” he explained.
Ogamba went on to state that a further Sh6.8 billion was allocated to the NG-CDF - Sh3.4 billion from the Ministry of Education and Sh3.4 billion in matching funds from NG-CDF - for 6,800 classrooms.
The CS said the 18 constituencies in Nairobi County have been allocated a total of Sh1 billion for infrastructure development through NG-CDF.
He lauded the MPs for their outstanding cooperation and efforts in the construction of classrooms for Junior School.
He added that the ministry will construct a further 7,290 classrooms to address the increased enrolment of learners to ensure a smooth transition for the cohort.
Ogamba announced that the government has beat the expected challenges in efforts to place all the 2024 Grade 8 learners in classrooms at Grade 9, the highest level of Junior School.
On Tuesday, the CS said the ministry, through a multi-agency approach is doing everything possible to ensure a smooth transition to Grade 9.
“Where there are challenges, it should be escalated, and a solution is found, including merging classes for the lower grades so that the grade nine learners are not affected,” he said.
Ogamba added that the ministry has procured 9,926,618 textbooks for Grade 9, which have been distributed to schools, with the exercise expected to be completed in January.
“I have directed the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development to work robustly and ensure that all required textbooks and other instruction materials are available for use by our learners,” he added.
