Equip secondary schools to take in more Form One students

During their election campaigns, the Jubilee Party and the National Super Alliance pledged that they would provide free secondary education if they formed the next government. Now that Jubilee prevailed and its leader Uhuru Kenyatta has embarked on a second term, the government has the daunting task of making this pledge a reality.

However, there will be many obstacles that have to be surmounted. To capture the enormity of the task ahead, we will throw in some numbers the government must grapple with. To begin with, it must ensure that there is an adequate number of teachers in secondary schools to teach the 243,133 new Form One students, taking cognizance that some of the 993,718 learners who sat this year’s KCPE are ineligible for secondary education having scored below the 250 points pass mark. Conservative estimates indicate that 9,845 teachers will be required on top of the 75,000 that are already serving.