Schools Term 3 opening date pushed to September 2
Students on their way home after schools closed for December holidays in 2017. Opening date for Term 3, 2019 has been pushed to September 2. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
Dr Kipsang directed all regional and county directors of education to inform all schools and colleges about the change of opening date.
The change of schools opening date followed a request by the Kenya National Bureau of Statics for more time during this year’s National Census.
The Ministry of Education has changed Term three opening date from August 26 to September 2 to allow the National Population and Housing Census exercise to go on uninterrupted.
In a circular issued on Friday, Principal Secretary for Early Learning and Basic Education Dr Belio Kipsang said the dates of census coincided with the opening of schools.
“For the forthcoming census to be successful, it is the desire of the National Bureau of Statics that there be minimum movements of the population so that they get as many people as possible in convention,” he said
The National Census exercise has been scheduled for the night of August 24 and 25 August 2019 to August 31, 2019.
OPENING DATE
The change of the opening date has shortened third term by a week.
Dr Kipsang directed all regional and county directors of education to inform all schools and colleges about the change of opening date.
The third term is always fully packed with activities among them national examinations, the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE), Kenya Certificate of Secondary Examination (KCSE) and the grade three Kenya Early Years Assessment (Keya).
The KCPE exams will take place between October 29 and 31.
Rehearsal will be done on the October 28 while the 2019 KCSE examination will take place between October 21 and November 27.
This year, the Kenya national Examination Council (Knec) has registered 1.78 million candidates for the 2019 exams.
Of the registered students, 1,089,671 are KCPE candidates while 698,935 students are KCSE candidates in 10,304 examination centres.
The Keya assessments will take place in October.
MISS OUT
The change of schools opening date followed a request by the Kenya National Bureau of Statics (KNBS) for more time during this year’s National Census.
KNBS had written to the education Cabinet Secretary proposing that schools’ opening dates be pushed from August 26 or to September 2.
There were fears that many people may miss out on the National Census exercise since many parents, learners and teachers will be travelling on the weekend of August 24 in the readiness for the third term.
In Kenya, the National Census is done after every 10 years. The last time the exercise was conducted was in 1999.
There are approximately 8.8 million in primary schools and 2.6 million learners in secondary schools according to data from KNBSs.
The third term will end on October 25.
