 |
| Nationwide Follow-Up Launched to Rescue Missing Grade 10 Learners |
Nationwide Follow-Up Launched to Rescue Missing Grade 10 Learners
The Ministry of Education has launched a nationwide exercise involving local administrators to trace an estimated 400,000 Grade 10 learners who have failed to report to senior secondary schools weeks after the official reporting date.
The move comes amid growing concern over the implementation of the Competency-Based Education (CBE) system and the government’s commitment to ensuring a 100 per cent transition rate from junior to senior school.
Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Migos Ogamba directed chiefs, assistant chiefs and other grassroots administrators to work with school heads and parents to establish the whereabouts of the missing learners.
The administrators have been instructed to carry out community-level follow-ups, including household visits, to identify students who may still be at home or who have dropped out due to financial, logistical or social challenges.
According to data from the Ministry of Education, only slightly over 300,000 learners had reported to senior secondary schools by mid-January, despite more than one million candidates being placed following the first-ever Kenya Junior School Education Assessment.
The large gap between placement and reporting raised alarm within the ministry, prompting the decision to involve the national administration in the tracking exercise.
Parents and education stakeholders have cited several reasons for the delayed reporting. Chief among them are the high cost of education-related expenses such as uniforms, boarding fees and transport, particularly for learners placed in schools far from their homes.
Others are reportedly awaiting placement reviews after being assigned schools they or their parents consider unsuitable. In some areas, uncertainty about school readiness under the new CBE structure has also contributed to hesitation among parents.
In response to these challenges, the ministry extended the Grade 10 reporting deadline to allow more time for families to prepare and for placement issues to be resolved.
Officials have maintained that no learner should be locked out of school due to circumstances beyond their control, stressing that the transition to senior school is a critical stage in the education reform process.
Education experts have warned that prolonged absence from school could increase the risk of dropouts, particularly among learners from vulnerable backgrounds.
Teachers’ unions and parents’ associations have urged the government to speed up the disbursement of bursaries and strengthen support mechanisms at the community level to ensure all learners are absorbed into the system.
As the exercise continues, the government has reiterated its commitment to accounting for every learner and addressing the underlying issues contributing to non-reporting.
The success of the Grade 10 transition is widely seen as a key test of the country’s shift to competency-based education, with long-term implications for access, equity and learning outcomes in Kenya’s education sector.
Nationwide Follow-Up Launched to Rescue Missing Grade 10 Learners