REFLECT SERIOUSLY ON JUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL BEFORE IT’S TO LATE TO SAVE A GENERATION FROM WASTE!
PROMOTING GRADUATES IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS IS THE ONLY GATE OUT OF THE QUAGMIRE
By Peter Ngare -001
The problem of treating task forces as a way of rewarding cronies with part time jobs is going to prove VERY COSTLY in the Education Sector, in the near future.
That the task force on Education recommended that JSC remains in Primary Schools is the only option available for them in that topic.
The children are young, vulnerable and have no ability to survive in what we currently have as Secondary School environment.
Most children in Grade 6 are too young to operate as independent individuals, doing their laundry, cleaning their environment, doing their bedding, waking up at 4 a.m and sleeping at 10 p.m, keeping their own items from being stolen and even adjusting mentally to the learning and living environment our Secondary Schools provide.
The problem that is being created comes with the question of who is going to teach the JSC learners.
An attempt to recruit Secondary School Curriculum trained University Graduates into JSC is going to create a gridlock worse than the jam that kept Kenyans on our roads for days in the festive season.
A teacher Graduate, currently from our Universities, specializes in two teaching subjects.
Most of the subjects in the CBC currently are different from the subjects these teachers learn in the University.
Again, you can not deploy a teacher with English/Literature, Physics/Maths, Hist/Care, Chem/Biology etc to Primary Schools where we have totally different Learning areas.
More importantly, you can’t deploy only ONE teacher with such a combination as is being envisioned to teach all the subjects.
When TSC recruits teachers at whatever level, consideration is made on the KCSE Qualifications and whether the teacher passed his subjects of combination at O-Level.
How, therefore , is TSC expected to deploy one teacher to a school to teach all the Learning Areas while the same teacher DID NOT DO all subjects at O-Level, leave alone passing them.
Again, how is this one teacher expected to teach almost eleven Learning areas, with almost 50 lessons in a week and still remain a human being, a husband/wife and a father????
WAY OUT
The only people to run to are Diploma and Graduate teachers serving in Primary Schools.
Though these people also specialized at University, they have the basic training to teach all subjects from TTCs.
Moreover, despite these teachers being Graduates, they have been teaching in Primary Schools using CBC since its inception.
TSC has an opportunity to sort out the matter of unpromoted Graduates whose degrees are tearing away and gathering dust at home.
The Government machinery MUST STOP TALKING ABOUT ANY OTHER THING AND FACE THIS ELEPHANT IN THE HOUSE WITHIN THE REMAINING THREE WEEKS or it will come face to face with the prize of a rushed POLICY in Education Sector when schools open on January 23rd.
