The Government is likely to enforce a total ban on boarding in all primary schools to allow parents to spend more time with children.
A new curriculum that the government is expected to roll out in the first term of 2019 has proposed a ban on boarding in all primary schools.
Under the 2-6-3-3 system, grade one to nine will mean primary school and grade 10 to 12 will mean secondary learning.
The proposal is part of the preliminary findings of a team set up by the ministry of education headed by former Moi University Vice-Chancellor Laban Ayiro that found out that boarding schools were congested and expensive.
The team further established that long spells in boarding schools and limited contact with parents have been blamed for the wave of indiscipline.
It emerged that parents feared to have children at home and sent them to boarding in early years of schooling to escape responsibility.
Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) Secretary General Wilson Sossion has supported the move by explaining, “Banning boarding schools in primary learning is long overdue. Parents do not spend enough time with their children.”
He added that “As a union, we have strongly proposed that this be done, and even at the National Assembly level we want this legislation brought”
It emerged that parents feared having children at home and sent them to boarding in early years of schooling to escape responsibility.
The findings also showed that children were fatigued by spending more time in schools, resulting in indiscipline and unrest that have affected public schools calendar.
The internal findings were tabled during the Curriculum Steering Committee meeting held at the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD). The internal report says teaching and learning in pilot schools was rated at 62 per cent, a score attributed to use of learner-centred approaches.
The KICD report says the high rating was a result of supportive physical surroundings for group work and collaboration, and social interaction among learners that led to value-based learning.
What do you think with the government’s move to ban boarding schools?