Public primary schools in Mombasa are grappling with the huge demand of junior secondary schools (JSS) as grade 7 intake enters week two with some schools being forced to double their intake to accommodate the extra pupils seeking admission.
Mombasa County has 97 public primary schools and over 400 private primary schools. All public schools were approved to offer JSS with only 166 private schools getting the nod from the Education ministry.
Some 12,592 pupils sat for the inaugural KPSEA exams in public primary schools while another 22,000 sat the exams in private schools.
Mombasa County Director of Education Mr. Peter Magiri said that despite the challenge, the exercise which began last week was going on well and they expect the admission rate in Mombasa to hit over 70 per cent by the end of the week.
“Majority of students who did the KPSEA exams in private schools are now joining public schools. They have liberty to either go to other private schools with approved centers or join public schools,” he said.
“At Mbaraki Primary School, their candidature in the national assessment was 25, but now they are having over 50 pupils admitted to JSS,” said Magiri.
Magiri was speaking after inspecting the ongoing admission process at Mbaraki Junior Secondary School in Mvita Sub-county. He expressed confidence that all the 34,595 students who sat the exams in Mombasa will join junior secondary school.
“So far I am satisfied with what we are doing, I hope we shall be over 70 per cent intake by the end of the week,” Magiri said, adding that they were depending on the private schools to ensure the 100 per cent transition policy by the government is achieved.
He however noted that the ministry will not compromise on quality in approving private schools to offer JSS.
About 1.6 million pupils who sat the inaugural Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA) began reporting to school last week Monday.
By Mohamed Hassan
