The government has announced plans for recruitment will employ at least 20,000 teachers to solve the workload in handling Grade 9 learners in 2025.
During his speech in Bungoma,Ezekiel Machogu,the cabinet secretary under ministry of education said that the current Grade 8 learners will transition to Grade 9 in the primary schools.
Machogu indicated that government has already allocated all constituencies across the country.
He clarified that the an conditional grant of Sh3.4 billion has been allocated towards the construction of 6,000 classrooms by the end of the year.
He indicated that such an action is as a result of the close working relationship between the national government and the National Government-Constituency Development Fund (NG-CDF).
The CS also said that World Bank has so far granted the government Sh9 billion for the construction of additional 9,000 classrooms in primary schools.
Such addition money bring the total number of classrooms to be put up by the end of the year to 15,015 .
He also revealed that all development for Grade 9 learners has already been prepared by the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD), indicating that it is now at the final process to release learning materials.
The CS dismissed all claims circulating in social media claiming that all Grade 9 class will be moved to secondary school next year.
Machogu dismissed claims that he has directed the Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec) to develop the Kenya Primary Placement Examination (KEPPE),which is a Grade 8 exam to be used for placing learners to Grade 9.
Machogu said that reports to have the new examination to be rolled out by November this year is false maintaining that maintaining that nothing has changed and the status quo would remain.
As per to the fake circular, the State was working towards shifting Grade 9 teachers and learners under the competency-based curriculum to secondary school.
It also added that the change was expected to affect Junior Secondary School teachers who are hosted in primary schools by moving them to high schools to handle grades 9, 10, 11, and 12.
TSC also accepted that junior secondary schools are grappling with severe teacher shortages.

JSS teacher takes students through an integrated lesson at Nyamachaki Primary School in Nyeri on February 2023 ; image/file