The Ministry of Education has said that the 2020 academic year is all lost.
Thus, all primary and secondary schools will reopen next year in January, Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha said on Tuesday.
Magoha in his address at the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) said that consultations indicated this was the best way to prevent further spread of coronavirus.
“Based on the rising trend, we agreed to shelve classes. The country will be severely affected as all other children will lose the year. It shall be impossible to achieve social distancing. In consultation with the Ministry of Health, stakeholders agreed that reducing physical numbers in classes will affect learning, schools should only resume if cases reduce consistently for 14 days and social and physical distancing is the most critical factor in ensuring the safety of learners, handwashing and using masks and monitoring temperature will be crucial too,” he said.
In this new plan, candidates in Standard 8 and Form Four will sit for their KCPE and KCSE respectively in 2021.
Magoha stated that in 2021, Grade 1 to 4 and Standard 5 to 7 pupils will remain in the same class while those in Form 1 to 3 will also remain in the same class they are in now.
In 2021 though, he explained that there will be no KCSE and KCPE exams saying “the current Standard 7 and Form 3 students will, practically, not be able to cover the curriculum load for five terms in one year and sit for the examinations.”
TVET institutions and college will, however, open in September under strict COVID-19 preventive measures.
