At what point do we stop treating Junior Secondary School as a temporary arrangement and start building the institution our children actually need?

This is no longer just a debate about teachers.

It is about our children.

A Grade 9 learner is not simply a primary-school child who has moved to another classroom. That learner is completing Junior Secondary School, preparing for Senior School pathways, and sitting KJSEA — a distinct national assessment built on three years of Junior Secondary learning, incorporating Grade 7 and 8 School-Based Assessment alongside Grade 9 results. KNEC's own requirements show how structured and distinct this stage has become.

So ask yourself:

Why should an institution with its own curriculum, its own teachers, its own assessment system, its own infrastructure needs and its own transition responsibility continue to operate under a structure designed around primary education?

This is not an attack on primary school headteachers. It is not about saying primary teachers are less important. They are not.

It is about recognising that different levels of education have different demands.

And this is not merely a social-media argument anymore. It is now the central fault line in Kenya's education reform process.

The debate is already happening

Back in March 2026, Education CS Julius Ogamba said proposals to make junior schools independent institutions were at an advanced stage, pending parliamentary approval. Around the same time, the Teachers Service Commission itself proposed an independent governance structure for JSS, complete with separate principals and deputy principals.

And right now - this week - the country is having exactly this argument, county by county.

As the National Assembly Education Committee runs public participation on the Education Reform Bills through September 25, the pattern is unmistakable:

• In Kisii, KUPPET pushed for JSS to be established as an autonomous institution with its own governance structures, and called for separate Boards of Management at each level of education.
• In Kisumu, KUPPET's branch secretary said plainly that JSS is expected to be autonomous and very independent, and that the law should clearly distinguish primary, junior secondary and senior school with defined management responsibilities at each level.
• In Homa Bay, KUPPET repeated its call for autonomous JSS structures.
• In Kirinyaga, stakeholders argued that granting JSS autonomy would strengthen accountability, improve learning conditions, and create a clearer institutional transition between primary and junior secondary education. One union official there stated that junior secondary schools need their own principals, deputy principals and boards of management to ensure accountability.

KUPPET has gone further, proposing a three-level leadership structure with distinct heads for primary, JSS and senior school - a formal blueprint, not just a slogan.

But there is another side

On the other side, KNUT has supported keeping JSS within the comprehensive school model in counties like Narok, arguing the current system is working and should be strengthened rather than restructured.

School heads under the Kenya Secondary School Heads Association have likewise backed keeping JSS domiciled in primary schools.

That is a real, good-faith position - but it is a position about administrative continuity.

It is not a position about whether a 13-year-old preparing for KJSEA has the laboratory, the microscope, or the specialised teacher that subject requires today.

So this is the moment to ask the difficult question:

Are we protecting a management structure, or are we designing the best possible education system for the child?

When JSS requires laboratories, ICT facilities, specialised subjects, projects, continuous assessment and preparation for Senior School, should its leadership and resources not be equally specialised?

When KJSEA is becoming such an important milestone in a child's education, should the institution preparing that child not have clear accountability for the results?

And when teachers themselves — not once, not in one county, but repeatedly, from Narok to Kajiado to Kisumu to Kisii to Kericho to Homa Bay to Kirinyaga — are telling Parliament the same thing, should we simply dismiss it as noise?

Why was JSS placed in primary schools in the first place?

Yes, there was a reason JSS was initially placed in existing primary schools.

The government cited:

• Cost considerations
• Available classrooms
• Concerns about moving younger learners into secondary-school environments

In fact, the Presidential Working Party reported that 93% of submissions supported hosting JSS in existing primary schools.

But a decision that made sense during transition does not automatically have to become permanent.

We have now gained years of experience.

We have seen the challenges.

We have seen what works.

We have seen what does not.

And now the country's own institutions - the TSC, the CS, and teachers in county after county - are converging on the same conclusion:

It is time for the structure to evolve.

Three levels. Three identities.

Primary School should have its identity.

Junior Secondary School should have its identity.

Senior School should have its identity.

They can cooperate.

They can share facilities where necessary.

They can coordinate transition.

But each should have clear leadership, responsibility and accountability for its learners.

Because ultimately, this debate is not about who sits in which office.

It is not about who controls capitation.

It is not about unions.

It is about the child.

The child sitting in a Grade 9 classroom today does not care about institutional politics.

That child needs:

• Qualified teachers
• Adequate learning materials
• Laboratories
• ICT facilities
• Effective leadership
• Proper assessment
• Guidance
• A school structure designed around the realities of Junior Secondary education

KJSEA is here. JSS is here. The learners are already here.

And this week, their teachers are telling Parliament, county after county, that the structure needs to catch up.

The question is no longer whether JSS deserves autonomy. The question is what evidence would justify denying it any longer.

For more on KJSEA, the transition to Senior School, and how these reforms affect your child, visit KJSEA.co.ke.

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