NAIROBI: Contrary to the norm, no paper work interviews for class one pupils were administered Monday as schools opened for the first term.
Many school heads appeared to adhere to the recently released guidelines on admission of Standard One pupils that scrapped off academic tests for appraisal sessions.
In the Kenya School Readiness Assessment Tool guidebook developed by the Ministry of Education in partnership with the United Nation Children's Fund, social interaction, discipline levels, basic arithmetic are some of the provisions that have replaced academic interviews.
This has made uniform across board of admission regulations doing away with different methods that schools used to enroll pupils. These constituted written interviews and evaluation of past performance from nursery schools service which are usually charged.
Moi Avenue Headmistress Eunice Mlati confirmed that no written interview was administered for the new class one pupils being enrolled.
READ MORE
Siaya deputy governor wants court to dismiss suit on high end car
"For us a child has to be at least six years. We do also interact with the child to determine the competence levels," she said.
Ms Mlati however noted that of recent, pupils join class one when they are competent enough hence easy for the teachers to start teaching them from what they already know.
According to Section 34(4) of the Basic Education Act no public school is to administer any test related to admission of a child to a public school unless such a test is for purposes of placing the child at an appropriate level of education.
On releasing the guideline Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang'i insisted that it is an all year evaluation process and not another form of academic test.
Scrapping off of the tests seems to have led to an increase the number of admissions.
A visit to Olympic Primary in Kibera revealed that the number of class one pupils was a staggering 400 with many still being expected.
"Last year we had 368 pupils; this year we are overwhelmed but we cannot turn away parents. We have had to add one more stream to the four we already have," said the school admission coordinator Agatha Mutiso.
The school is said to be expecting a population of 4,000, with every stream having an average of 80 pupils.
To comply with the new admission guidelines, Ms Mutiso said a customized syllabus approach has been crafted to be used on all of the pupils in order to have them start at the same level.
