Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) and Kenya Union of Post Primary Teachers (KUPPET) are on a warpath over implementation of CBC and domiciling of junior secondary school.
Their sentiments come after they submitted their views to the presidential working party on education reforms.
KNUT argues that moving the children to secondary schools will pose a risk to their safety, while KUPPET insists that secondary schools are better equipped to handle the transition.
“Junior secondary be domiciled in primary schools, and we shall refer to junior secondary as intermediate. What we’re saying is that don’t refer to this as junior secondary,” KNUT Secretary General Collins Oyuu said.
However, KUPPET officials led by Secretary General Akelo Misori maintained that the students were old enough for transition.
Misori argued that secondary schools had already prepared the needed infrastructure and developed proper curriculum to handle the transition.
“Junior secondary is a secondary school curriculum, and in that respect it is best placed in the secondary school, and it is also premised in the aspect that secondary schools are already preparing to have them, our primary schools do not have the necessary competencies,” KUPPET Secretary General Akelo Misori stated.
KNUT argues that it is unwise to mix the sixth graders with older students in the same institution.
The two unions however side on the need for a uniform approach to the assessments and administration of the exams by the national examination body, especially for the Grade Six pupils.
KNUT suggests that the assessments for the CBC be localised through sub-county and county assessment committees.
The working party says its report will be ready in early December, and is expected to shape the next phase of the implementation of the CBC systems, amongst other reforms in the education sector.
