Ministry guidelines for implementing junior school in 2024

REPUBLIC OF KENYA
MINISTRY OF EDUCATION

PRESS RELEASE
NAIROBI, FRIDAY, JANUARY 12, 2024
For Immediate Release
GRADE 7 AND 8 COHORTS UNDER THE JUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL
Basic Education learning institutions opened for the First Term on Monday, January 8th 2024.

Since the opening day, the Ministry of Education has received a number of reports that some Junior Secondary Schools (JSS) are charging levies on the pretext of expanding infrastructure to accommodate learners joining Grade 8 in 2024.

Other schools are demanding new school uniforms for the Grade 7 learners.

To ensure smooth learning at the JSS level, the Ministry of Education wishes to instruct all schools to ensure that:

1) All the 1,282,574 candidates who sat the 2023 Kenya Primary Schools Education Assessment be allowed to join Grade 7 in the Junior Secondary Schools hosted by their respective primary schools where they attended Grade 1-6.

2) Grade 7 learners utilise the classrooms that were used by the current Grade 8 learners in 2023.

3) Grade 7 learners be allowed to attend school in uniforms that they used while in Grade 6 in 2023 as parents and guardians make efforts to buy new outfits for the JSS.

4) Grade 8 learners utilise the classrooms left vacant by the last cohort of the Standard 8 candidates who sat the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education Examination in 2023.

5) Schools must desist from asking parents to construct new classrooms for the current Grade 8 candidates.

The Government plans to spend Sh12.8 Billion to facilitate the construction of 15,015 classrooms for JSS over the next one year.

The Ministry wishes to inform all Heads of Institutions that the Ksh7.6 Billion released last week for learners in Junior Secondary School have been credited to school accounts.

Schools are therefore not expected to charge any levies from parents.

Field officers from the Ministry of Education should be vigilant in the regions to ensure all joining instructions to Junior Secondary schools and Form One are strictly complied with.

HON. DR. EZEKIEL MACHOGU, EGH
CABINET SECRETARY
MINISTRY OF EDUCATION