Garissa Township MP Dekow Mohamed has called on the Ministry of Education to make adequate preparations for the transition of learners from grade 9 to 10 next year to avoid causing confusion to both parents and learners.
Senior school, which covers Grades 10 to 12, will officially begin in January 2026, marking the transition for the pioneer Grade 9 cohort.
Speaking during an NG-CDF bursary kitty launch forum in Garissa town, the MP cautioned the government against making last-minute preparations, which could hurt the implementation of the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC).
“We want the Ministry of Education to be responsible. We do not want a hazardous way of implementing government programmes. This programme of CBC and CBE was there for the last seven or so years but it seems like nothing is in place for transition from junior secondary schools to senior secondary schools,” Dekow said.
“We are asking the CS in charge of education to ensure that we do not have confusion during this transition. We have only six months remaining and we expect all public schools to have adequate infrastructure so that we have a seamless transition,” he added.
However, in response, the Garissa Township Sub-County Director of Education Rashid Muktar, affirmed that the government has made all the necessary preparations, including the development of curriculum and the retooling of teachers.
Muktar said that the parents and the learners have nothing to worry about, as materials for Grade 10 learning will also be available from August this year.
“I want to confirm here that the ministry has put everything in place, including the curriculum. The materials required in schools are ready for the inception of learners in senior secondary schools for next year,” Muktar said.
“We have assessed all our public secondary schools; the TSC has trained and retooled teachers for senior school, and the KICD has also prepared the materials and the textbooks for grade 10, which will be received by schools as from August,” he added.
Earlier this year, the ministry of education released a guideline on how the learners will be placed in senior schools, which will be categorised into four: pathways, accommodation, gender and special needs.
The pathways are divided into two: double (which represents Science Technology Engineering, Mathematics and Arts & Sports Science – STREAMS) on one hand and triple pathways senior school (which involves STEM, Arts & Sports and Social Sciences).
For the accommodation category, it will consist of day senior schools for those who commute home daily and hybrid senior schools for learners who both reside in the school and those who do not.
According to the guidelines, there will be two divisions in gender, consisting of Single Sex (girls-only schools and boys-only schools) and mixed sex, where both genders join.
The Special needs category would be grouped into Special needs for school – Hearing, Visual and Physically impaired and Vocational senior schools, which involve learners with autism, cerebral palsy, cognitive difficulties and deaf-blindness.
In the pathway selection, the learner will select 12 schools for their chosen pathway, which outlines four schools in the first choice track and subject combination, another four schools in the second choice subject combination, and the remaining four in the third choice subject combination.
By Erick Kyalo
