All Grade 9 learners have reported to school – Ruto

President William Ruto speaks during the commissioning of the Kapcherop Technical and Vocational College, Elgeyo Marakwet county, January 9, 2025./DPCS

President William Ruto has assured parents that most of the teething challenges experienced at the onset of the rollout of the Competency-Based Curriculum have been resolved.

Speaking on Thursday, the Head of State said the government is working on resolving the few remaining challenges one-by-one without interfering with learning.

He in particular sought to allay fears that some Grade 9 learners might not have a place to learn due to lack of classrooms.

“I want to assure parents that all our children are in class. No child is out of Grade 9. We have constructed 13,000 new classrooms to ensure all our children have a place to learn to ensure we achieve CBC goals and align Kenya’s education standards with job market demands,” Ruto said.

He spoke while commissioning the Kapcherop Technical and Vocational College, Elgeyo Marakwet county.

Ruto said construction of the remaining 3,000 classrooms will be completed in due cause but arrangements have been made to ensure learning is not interrupted.

“So I want to assure all parents that the challenges that existed before we are tackling them step-by-step. We have hired 76,000 teachers to close the gap on the teacher-student ratio; we have constructed 13,000 classrooms to ensure that transition to Grade 9 proceeds.”

The President said interventions initiated by the government to improve the country’s education standards have started to bear fruit as demonstrated by improved performance in STEM subjects in the 2024 KCSE exams, whose results were released Thursday.

The results announced by CS Julius Ogamba indicated improved performance in 17 out of 30 subjects, including Mathematics Alternative A and B, Biology, Physics, Chemistry, Aviation Technology and General Science.

The President, however, challenged parents to play the critical role of mentoring their children to prevent them from engaging in risky behaviour that could otherwise claw back on the reforms made thus far in the education sector.

Ruto said the government has envisioned expenditure of in excess of Sh650 billion in the education sector to ensure quality of learning is not compromised.

“I wish to ask parents, religious leaders and all the other stakeholders to cooperate in ensuring our children, our God-given blessings, do not get lost. Let’s keep them disciplined and with good character. We must have a whole-of-society approach to ensure that the government (and) religious organizations contributes their part and parents must be at the center making sure that not only are our children in class, but we also mentor them.

“Take time, teach them, and make them morally upright. Let us make sure our children do not get into drugs and do not get waylaid by immoral character so that our society can be upright and avoid incidences of femicide and all the other things that plaque our society.”