School heads in Kisumu County have been warned against recalling learners for holiday tuition as schools close for December holidays this week.
In a stern warning to head teachers and parents, the County Quality Assurance and Standards (Qasos) officer Julius Odongo said private tuition stood banned and heads found in breach will face disciplinary and legal consequences.
He asked parents to let their children take a break adding that the school calendar has intentionally been designed with such breaks for holistic development of the learners.
Speaking in an interview on Friday, the education expert said the curriculum is planned in a sensible and logical manner at each level to achieve its objective.
He said the 8-4-4 system is in itself too academic and the breaks were necessary.
“Holiday tuition deprives learners of good academic development, and waters down education quality instead of improving it,” the official said.
Even though tuition is now illegal, there is still a silent tug of war between parents and teachers on whether pupils should attend extra classes after schools close.
A teacher at a Kisumu primary school that extends class hours to 7pm said that the 8-4-system of education presented a wide curriculum scope that cannot be covered within the term dates and they extended to complete syllabus in time.
Teachers offer holiday tuition for candidates at a fee in an attempt to cover the syllabuses in preparation for national examinations that are used to rank their schools and to lengthen and deepen syllabus coverage.
Odongo argued that the money levied to parents for tuition was to blame for laxity during the official term dates, leaving the syllabus to be hurriedly covered during tuition.
In making 8-4-4 manageable, examinable subjects were reduced at each level and content of most subjects adjusted without compromising the quality of education.
The officer agrees that this did not, however, stop holiday tuition programmes and teachers do it for monetary gains. Fear of dismal performance in national exams has further fuelled the practice despite ban.
“In spite of these productive moves, teachers are yet to stop holiday tuition programmes,” he added.