Marufuku hiyo pia inawahusu wanafunzi wa ngazi ya chini kwa elimu ya Sekondari na itaanza kutumika kuanzia Mwaka 2023.
Ufafanuzi kamili wa madarasa yanayohusika na marufuku hiyo ni kuanzia la kwanza hadi la nane, lengo ni kuwafanya wanafunzi kuwa karibu na wazazi na walezi wao pamoja na kupunguza gharama za malipo.
Taarifa hiyo imetajwa kuwapa mshtuko mkubwa wazazi na walezi ambao wameshaweka mipango ya watoto wao lakini walimu wakuu wengi wamepongeza kwa kuwa itawapa wazazi majukumu ya kuwaangalia watoto wao kwa ukaribu.
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Kenya’s Ministry of Education will abolish boarding schools for Grades One to Nine from next year, in a move that — coming just six weeks to the reopening of schools — has caught many parents flat-footed.
Announcing the hugely significant policy shift, the principal secretary for Basic Education, Dr Belio Kipsang, said the learners need to be close to their parents and guardians.
This comes as a shocker for parents whose children are already enrolled in boarding schools, but the move was praised by headteachers, who insisted parents must take up the responsibility of raising their children.
“The real reason we want to do away with boarding schools is to make education affordable. On average, parents pay up to KSh45,000 per year in extra county schools and KSh53,000 in national schools. [It’s even higher] in private schools,” explained the PS.
He said less than five per cent of public primary schools have boarding facilities. Speaking during the official opening of the Kenya Primary Schools Head Teachers Association meeting at Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Primary School in Mombasa, the PS said the government prefers day schooling for junior secondary.
The policy shift is one of the recommendations made by the Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms and presented to President William Ruto last Thursday. The President announced that junior secondary school will be domiciled in primary school, a departure from earlier plans to have it in secondary school.
The government will also not allow private schools to register boarding sections for junior secondary school. Registrations for new private primary schools seeking to have boarding facilities will also not be approved.
Build low-cost boarding schools
“However, we want to be advised further because parents have already prepared to bring their children to our boarding facilities. What happens to facilities like dormitories? Maybe we can rent them out to tenants,” said Ms Babu whose school has 350 learners, most of them boarders.
Ms Rosemary Nyong’o, the headteacher of Ryururu Girls Boarding Primary School in Meru County, said: “The only challenge now is that, when you go up to Grade Nine, we don’t have facilities. If there are no boarding schools, it means our children will have to go to day schools, therefore our schools will be deserted, and we will have to close shop,” she said, adding that the school recently introduced day schooling for play group learners up to Grade Three pupils.
Dr Kipsang urged school managers to be conversant with the responsibilities that arise from domiciling junior secondary schools within their institutions.
“Start validating and verifying data. We want to ensure that each one of us can host junior secondary and, where we think we can share responsibilities with neighbouring schools, let’s say it,” said Dr Kipsang. According to the Ministry of Education, almost 50 per cent of public primary schools have secondary schools nearby. There are more than 23,000 public primary schools.
“The most critical facility [are science laboratories], therefore we shall be required to share some of [them],” said the PS.
However, he assured Kenyans that his ministry will collaborate with its partners, including parliamentarians, to put up enough infrastructure and to ensure that all learners have access to basic facilities such as laboratories and books.
Source: Monitor
