Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu says over 200,000 JSS students are yet to report to school.
He stated that the Ministry is working closely with the County Commissioners, area chiefs and their assistants, as well as village elders and Nyumba Kumi officials to ensure that all children report to school as expected.
The CS instructed parents to allow their children who sat for Kenya Certificate of Primary Education last year and were admitted to Form One and have not reported to their various schools to report immediately.
“More than 200,00 junior secondary school JSS students have not reported to school,’’ Cs Machogu said.
He further added that most of the day secondary schools are funded by the government and parents are not supposed to pay for anything except for lunch which is optional.
He urged all parents and guardians of Grade VII learners to ensure the children report to schools noting that it’s compulsory, in line with the government’s 100 per cent transition initiative.
Also Read: ADB Bank opens Centre to Boost Digital Skills
“I want to clarify that Junior Secondary School JSS is free and compulsory. No Principal, School board, PTA or any other person is allowed to come up with unauthorized levies in the name of registration fees,” CS Machogu stated.
The CS also reported that all Grade VII learners in public schools will be issued with a text book in each of the core learning areas at Junior Secondary School and the optional subjects they will choose.
He said that a total of 17,893,270 copies of learners’ books and 423,514 copies of teachers’ guides will be distributed by the end of the exercise next week.
“The government of Kenya has disbursed a total of Sh3,164,365,856 billion which has purchased all the required books for Grade seven which again are free for all public JSS learners, and we have adequate books that will be given to each student,” he said.
The distribution schedule will run from January 30 and February 17, 2023.
Additionally, headteachers had been advised to check the number of books supplied to their schools.