Grade 9 class rollout- Education Ministry admits there are challenges

The Ministry of Education has admitted that there are challenges facing the inaugural grade 9 class. According to the latest news from the Ministry, inadequate grade 9 classrooms and fewer teachers are some of the main hitches facing the rollout of the pioneer grade 9 CBC class.

Speaking to Journalists on Monday, Education Principal Secretary (PS) Belio Kipsang’, while admitting the challenges, stated that there are fewer classrooms to accommodate the learners and it (the Ministry) will have to improvise to ensure that learning is not disrupted.

Continue reading: Grade 9 classrooms: Top Ministry of Education officials to blame for shoddy constructions

The PS reported that some classrooms will be congested for the next 30 days as the Ministry and the Government work on constructing more classes.

“In some situations where the congestion will not allow we can have a multi-shift within the time where when there is a class doing outdoor activity then another group can be optimizing the classroom,” Kipsang said.

The PS, who has been serving in the Ministry for some time now, added that the Ministry plans to use Ksh.16 billion to complete the construction of the classrooms.

According to Dr. Kipsang, so far 13,500 classes have been completed out of the required 16,000.

The Ministry is constructing 11,000 classes while the remainder will be built with the NG-County Development Fund (CDF) kitty.

Kipsang noted that the ministry has constructed 10,500 classes and NG-CDF has built 3,000.

On CBC textbooks and other learning materials, the PS reported that 9.9 million books have been distributed to different primary schools that domicile Grade 9 classes

To address the huge shortage of teachers countrywide, the Teacher’s Service Commission (TSC) has posted 46,000 teachers who were on internship and another cohort of 20,000 teachers.

Kipsang however maintains that the number of teachers is still low and more should be onboarded to equate the number of learners.

Schools reopened for term 1 of 2025 on Monday 6th January and will close on April 4, 2025, with a half-term break from February 26 to March 2.