Schools mull effects of strike on candidates

Apprehension is in the air over the fate of candidates scheduled to sit national examinations in the coming days as public schools re-open Sunday, five weeks behind the normal school calendar.

There are now demands that the school calendar be adjusted to cover for lost time occasioned by the teachers’ strike.

Schools re-opened for third term from August 31 to November 13 but the opening date was later revised to September 21 after teachers stayed away.

But on September 25, Labour Court Judge Nelson Abuodha directed the re-opening of schools and the government set the date as from September 29 to November 20. But teachers once again declined to return to work.

Changes in the school calendar mean that students who are set to join Form One next year as well as transition from one class to another could be affected.

REVISE TERM DATES

On Saturday, Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut), Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) and Kenya Private Schools Association (KPSA) said it will be necessary to adjust the school calendar in order to make up for lost time.

“We, however, want the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) to adjust the examination calendar to give us more time to prepare our students for the examination,” Knut Secretary-General Wilson Sossion said.

Mr Sossion asked teachers to use the time effectively starting Monday so that no student is disadvantaged, saying that students are supposed to sit examinations after they are done with the syllabus.

He also announced that teachers would participate in administration of national examinations.

Kuppet Secretary-General Akelo Misori said there is a need for a stakeholders meeting to revise the term dates.

“The term dates were suspended, the students were sent home. Only candidates were left in school. And currently, when the students were asked to go back as from Monday, they did not go back to school. That means that nothing happened for a whole week,” Mr Misori said.

He said that there is a need for a stakeholders’ meeting to assess the issues related to suspending examinations and revision of term dates.

EXAM DATE EXTENDED
Private schools association Chief Executive Officer Peter Ndoro said the association has no problem with the government extending by two weeks the start of national examinations.

“As private schools, we will be ready to sacrifice so that next year no one can complain over the examination results,” Mr Ndoro said.

He said private schools are set to complete their 11-week school calendar on November 13.

Mr Ndoro said students in public schools have been affected by the strike and called for a speedy resolution of the problem.

The calling off of the strike by the teachers’ union leaders is a relief to the examination council.

On Wednesday, KNEC Chief Executive Officer Joseph Kivilu admitted that the council was worried about administration of examinations.

The assessment for oral and practical examinations for the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education examination (KCSE) started on September 28 and is set to run until Tuesday with theory papers set to start on October 12.

Some 525,802 candidates will be sitting the KCSE exam while 937,467 candidates will be sitting the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examination.

FINANCIAL CRISIS
But a senior education officer at the ministry indicated that the directive on the school calendar would be issued in the course of the week.

Meanwhile, primary school heads have warned of a financial crisis ahead of the national examinations due to lack of funds.

So dire is the situation, they said, that some schools were operating with no watchmen because they had not been paid for close to three months.

The government had ordered Standard Eight candidates and those in Form Four to stay in class when it closed all schools two weeks ago.

Mr Shem Ndolo, Kenya Primary Schools Heads Association chairman,  said the government had not only failed to remit the Free Primary Education (FPE) funds that it had retained for the second term, it had also failed to release this term’s allocation.

He said that the government had retained nine per cent of last term’s 30 per cent allocation.

“The watchmen we had that we expected to help secure our children as the exams approach and during this strike, are threatening to walk out on us because they have not been paid,” Mr Ndolo told the Sunday Nation.

The FPE funds are released in tranches of 50 per cent for the first term, 30 per cent in the second and 20 per cent in the third term.

Their secondary school counterparts under the umbrella Kenya Secondary School Heads Association (Kessha) have also complained of delays in releasing the funds.

Kessha Chairman John Awiti warned that some support staff could leave work. “School heads are helpless at the moment as staff are demanding salaries,” Mr Awiti said on Tuesday.