KCPE, KCSE candidates to do exams before April, CS Magoha says

Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha has hinted that schools may remain closed beyond their expected reopening in September.

This is likely to disrupt the administration of national examinations and push them to probably March or April at the latest. This is also likely to upset the school calendar and admissions to universities and tertiary institutions.

“In order for us to open in September, the Ministry of Health must be satisfied that all the children and teachers and the staff in schools are going to be safe as we reopen. We wouldn’t want to guide the President to open schools only to close them a week or two later,” Prof Magoha said in Nakuru.

He added: “We shall comply towards that and the dates of the exams will definitely roll over to early next year.  And we have already said that the children must start from where they left, then perhaps as we cook the food, the earliest the exam can take place is around February and March.”

It was expected that if schools reopen in September, Kenya Certificate of Primary Education and Kenya Certificate Secondary Education candidates would sit their examinations in February.

However, the rising numbers of coronavirus infections may prompt the government to keep learning institutions shut longer.

The government ordered schools and all other learning institutions to close on March 16, three weeks to the end of the first term. Earlier, it had been indicated that schools would reopen on June 4 but that was extended to September following a surge in Covid-19 cases throughout the country.

“If the current upward trajectory continues into September, you don’t expect the President to tell you to go and open the school. How long this pandemic will continue to rise depends entirely on how you and I will behave,” Prof Magoha said.

The CS spoke when he toured schools in Nakuru County to assess the level of school preparedness in anticipation of reopening.

Among the things that the CS and other officials from the education sector were checking are the availability of water and the size of classrooms in relation to the requirements for social distancing.

Ministry officials said the government is planning to equip schools and institutions to ensure that learners are safe when they resume classes.

The CS said several schools have invested in water tanks but the government will be keen to help schools that have no water to make sure they have adequate supply.

“We are happy that a majority of primary schools have adequate water storage facilities. For those that do not have, the government will buy for them 10,000-litre water tanks. There are a good number that have boreholes,” he said.

Apart from supplying water to schools, the CS said, all teachers will be tested for the virus before they are allowed into classes.

He also said that the government had engaged the National Youth Service in making prototype masks.

All these, he said, will be done using the Sh80 billion earmarked for the ministry to deal with Covid-19.

“We have set aside Sh2.1 billion for the construction of additional classrooms in secondary schools, Sh1.9 billion for the making of school desks, Sh700 million for the construction and improvement of infrastructure in low-cost boarding schools in arid and semi-arid areas, Sh300 million for the recruitment of 1,000 ICT interns to support digital learning in public primary school,” he said.

He added: “We have also set aside Sh59.4 billion for free day secondary school education ..., including NHIF health cover for our children, Sh12.4 billion for free primary education ..., Sh2 billion for the permanent recruitment of an additional 5,000 teachers, Sh1.8 billion for the school feeding programme, Sh800 million to ... digital literacy ... and the Competency Based Curriculum.”

Meanwhile, the CS disputed reports that thousands of teenage girls had become pregnant since schools closed in March.

“I would like to interrogate the rates of the pregnancies because they look obnoxious. Did these children go and report that they are pregnant? Who’s giving us these figures?” Prof Magoha posed.

A survey by the Kenya Health Information System on Wednesday documented 153,000 teenage pregnancies countrywide since the beginning of the coronavirus lockdown.

Prof Magoha said that some organisations keen on pushing for sex education in schools could be exaggerating the numbers.

He urged parents to be more involved in the lives of their children and guide them appropriately.

Additional reporting by David Muchunguh