SCHOOLS TO REOPEN IN JANUARY 2021; KCPE, & KCSE EXAMS TO BE DONE AT THE END OF THE YEAR 2021; EDUCATION NEWS

SCHOOLS TO REOPEN IN JANUARY 2021; KCPE, & KCSE EXAMS TO BE DONE AT THE END OF THE YEAR 2021; EDUCATION NEWS

Fresh details have emerged about the new schools’ reopening date and school calendar. This is after the CS education Professor George Magoha held a consultative meeting with key education stakeholders at the KICD offices yesterday that settled for January 2021 as the most viable schools’ reopening date.

This, therefore, means that learners in Kenya may be forced to stay at home for over six more months to await the reduction of coronavirus infections.

According to the meeting’s resolution, primary and secondary schools will reopen in January 2021 unless the President opts for other measures that will ensure a safe reopening of schools.

TVET Colleges

Technical and Vocational Education Training Institutions, TVETs, and Teacher Training Colleges, TTCS will however resume in September and October 2020 respectively.

Universities have not been given an exact opening date. Those varsities that will act quickly and comply with the MOH guidelines on Covid-19 management will be allowed to reopen any time.

These recommendations were given by education stakeholders yesterday at the KICD offices in Nairobi and the President on Monday is expected to make final remarks on the matter.

The meeting brought together representatives from the Kenya National Union of Teachers, KNUT, Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers, KUPPET, Universities Academic Staff Union, UASU, Kenya Parents Association, KPA, Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Union, KMPDU, Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Association, KESSHA, Kenya Primary School Heads Association KEPSHA and Kenya Private Schools Association, KPSA.

Speaking at KICD yesterday, the CS said that it is suicidal to reopen schools when covid-19 infections are still rising.

“We have it on medical experts’ authority that the virus will peak in September and we don’t want to risk the lives of our children,” said the CS.

Besides, parents and guardians through their association have also vowed not to release their children to schools until the curve is flattened.

KCSE, KCPE national exams’ date

Sources within the meeting also said that the stakeholders have agreed to have the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education and the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education postponed and be sat at the end of next year.

This is after the participants discovered that synchronizing the school calendar to allow candidates to sit the exams in April as earlier proposed will be an uphill task.

“The curriculum starts from where it stopped in March when all schools were closed and children sent home. This means that the children will cover the last three weeks of the first term that they lost when schools were shut down,” indicated one of the sources.

Learners will have to repeat classes and parents have to cater to their fees from where they stopped.

School fees

On school fees, the ministry will advise parents on what to do, including those who had paid fees for the whole year.

If a parent paid fees for the first term, they will be expected to pay for the remaining two terms.

 

These recommendations were arrived at after the Ministry discovered that erecting more classes and hiring more teachers to cater to the reduced classes needs a lot of money. Besides, the government has confessed that it does not have enough funds to give the institutions for infrastructure.