At least 6,000 students who sat for last year’s Kenya Primary Schools Education Assessment (KPSEA) Examinations in Kajiado County yet to report to their respective Junior Secondary Schools (JSS).

The County Director of Education, Dr. Martin Cheruiyot says only 76% of the learners have so far reported to the various approved public and private junior secondary schools within the county.The director attributes the high number of missing students to the ongoing drought that has affected the source of livelihood of most of the residents.

Speaking to KNA in his office in Kajiado, Dr.Cheruiyot remarked that the education stakeholders in the county are putting all strategies in place to ensure that there is a 100% transition to junior secondary schools.

“We want to ensure that through the multi-agency approach, we will be able to reach out to the last child to ensure all children report to school. The government has approved many day schools for JSS so as to cut on boarding costs and the children can walk to schools. The only costs the parents will incur is the voluntary feeding program in the schools,” he said

The County Director noted that children have an open reentry program to the schools even for those who dropped out due to various reasons.

“Our schools are open and they can come back. We have the whole of first term for reentry and we are hoping they come back as soon as possible irrespective of the challenges. The leadership should be able to address those challenges,” said Dr.Cheruiyot

Dr.Cheruiyot further instructed the teachers not to charge any extra levies on the parents saying that the government has already deployed teachers for the JSS and is distributing teaching materials from Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD).

“Some of the issues we are seeing regarding transition is because some schools are having hidden costs that don’t come to our attention. That should desist. Children in JSS should walk to class even in grade six uniforms. For JSS, not a single coin should be paid by the learners and we will deal with the concerned schools as we get the information. We must be able to embrace our children unconditionally even with the challenges they come with,” said Cheruiyot.

He has cautioned parents and teachers who have registered their grade six students for Kenya Certificate of Primary Examinations saying that the National Education Management Information System (NEMIS) will eventually track them and they will be forced to go back to the grade they are supposed to be in.

“We are thinking of penalizing the teachers who are helping the parents and learners to register for KCPE instead of enrolling them in JSS,” he said.