The government is set to construct 18,000 additional classrooms in selected Primary Schools to accommodate the Grade 9 learners.
In a memo issued in June this year, the Ministry of Education said that 11,000 classrooms will be constructed with support from development partners, while 7,000 would be constructed with funding from the National Government Constituency Development Fund.
Speaking in Nairobi early this month after assessing the progress of construction of some of the classrooms, Education Cabinet Secretary, Julius Ogamba said that the ministry is currently constructing some 3,500 classrooms in the country.
The CS further said that the government will disburse Sh 7.5 billion to schools to facilitate the construction of 7,500 additional classrooms, which are expected to be completed by December this year.
The cost of constructing each of the classrooms has already been set at Sh 1 million. Ms. Njogu said that in compliance with the memo issued by the ministry, the Board of Management from the benefiting schools have already set up separate accounts dedicated to the projects, with payment being released to the contractors at periodic stages.
“Unlike the previous time when money was paid from the Ministry headquarters, this time the Sh 1 million per class will be deposited into the school account and is being managed by the Board of Management, so that is why they are able to move very fast. As we know, most of the contractors are local and may not have so much money and need to be paid after every stage for them to be able to move on,” she said.
In Nyeri County alone the government will spend Sh 218 million to construct a total of 218 Grade 9 classrooms.
The classrooms are part of the 18,000 units that the government is constructing to accommodate the pioneer cohort of Grade 9 learners under the Competency Based Curriculum. The 1.3 million learners who are currently in Grade 8 are expected to occupy the classrooms come January 2025 when they transition to Grade 9.
According to the Nyeri County Director of Education, Jane Njogu, construction is being done in two phases, where a total of 66 classrooms are being put up in the first phase. During the second phase, the Ministry of Education is set to construct the remaining 152 classrooms in 128 Primary Schools in the county.
In Nyeri, the first phase of the project, which is being undertaken in 37 schools, is at 52 per cent, with the CDE expressing optimism that construction will be complete before the end of the year.
“In phase one, we are doing very well; we are at 52 per cent. For instance, in a school like Chaka Primary School, the class is already roofed. All the others, apart from four classrooms, are at the walling stage. The four are at the slab level. Actually, I can almost confidently say this is a project we will even deliver before time,” said Ms. Njogu.
On the criteria used to select the benefiting schools, the CDE said that school enrolment was the factor for consideration. The ministry had set the minimum number of students as 45 for a school to be registered as a Junior School. Ms. Njogu said that whereas schools with a single stream of Junior School will benefit from a single classroom, schools with multiple streams will be allocated classrooms based on the student population.
“You remember the Grade 7 and Grade 8 were not a problem because every Primary School has an extra classroom, but because there was no class beyond Grade 8, that is why the government is constructing the classrooms. A school that is a single stream has been given one class, and a school that is a double stream or triple stream is given classrooms accordingly so that they are able to accommodate the Grade 9,” said Ms. Njogu.
