YOUR CHILD ENROLLING TO STD 1 2016? THIS IS WHAT THEY MUST KNOW....
According to Section 34(4) of the Basic Education Act, 2012, no public school shall administer any test related to admission of a child to a public school or cause a person to administer such test unless such a test is for purposes of placing the child at an appropriate level of education.
The Ministry of Education has therefore developed a list assessment areas to enable smooth transition from nursery school to primary school as contained in the Kenya School Readiness Assessment Tool, developed in partnership with United Nations Children’s Fund.
This new assessment tool will not be an academic test but an evaluation that shall be done across the year through observation and interaction with the child. There will be no more pen-and-paper examinations or interviewing parents to understand the mannerisms of the child.
The tool shall appraise the children on 10 key areas :—
languages and literacy, mathematical thinking, creative arts and physical competencies, scientific thinking, life skills, music and movement competencies, spirituality and morals.
According to this new arrangement, it is now apparent that how you raise your child, including the level of family discipline, and teaching them things like saying a short prayer will determine their admission to Standard One.
The following is the list of the assessment areas as developed by the Ministry of Education:-
~ They will test if your child can tell at least three things happening at home, play cheerfully with other children, use polite words, display proper ‘toileting’ practice and understand how to relate with strangers.
~ Evaluate the children’s scientific thinking competencies, their ability to talk about how to take care of domestic animals, name common foods at home and identify external parts of the body shall be assessed.
~ To test their mathematical thinking, the children shall be expected to repetitively count numbers, identify different shapes, sort objects according to size and tell different times of the day based on routine.
~ The ability of the child to follow rules and instructions given by the nursery teacher and adjust to changes in school routine shall be assessed under social emotional and general knowledge competencies. Here, the child will be expected to explain the different types of work performed by people living at home and name the different colours of the national flag.
~ And on self-skills competencies, the child shall be assessed on whether he or she can feed on their own, take care of their own body, empathise with other children and also state dangerous situations.
~ On moral competencies, the children shall be assessed on their ability to recite verses, name religious ceremonies, name places of worship and also differentiate good and bad deeds.
~ The overall well-being of the child shall also be recorded as well as whether the child has been fully immunised.
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