The National Covid-19 Education Response Committee has advised the ministry to consider reopening schools in September.
Initially, Education CS professor Magoha had settled for June 4 as the tentative date of school reopening. However, the decision was to depend greatly on the situation of covid-19 cases in the country.
With the surging number of coronavirus cases in the country, possibility of reopening schools any soon remains to be a mirage.
In addition, the Dr. Sara Ruto led task force, has also proposed postponement of national examination that are slated for November this year to February 2021.
This move will give teachers and candidates ample time to cover syllabus. Jambo News has established that should learners remain at home up to August, a total of about 24 weeks will be lost since schools were shut in March 13.
However, if the ministry will adopt proposed report, candidates will have close to 20 weeks between September 2020 and February 2021. This undoubtedly, will enable teachers to prepare candidates adequately without haste.
Ministry funding
The committee has also asked the the ministry to release funds to schools so as to enable them plan effectively.
By the time schools were closed, the government had not send all funds.
So far many schools are grappling with monthly payment of auxiliary staff and teachers employed by the board of management(BOM).
The task force has recommended that money due should be released in full in September.
Conflicting Unions
Teachers’ unions are so far reading from different scripts as far as schools’ reopening plan is concerned.
Kenya Union of Post Primary Teachers (KUPPET) had proposed partial reopening of schools by mid June, with both Kenya Certificate of Primary of Education (KCPE) and Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) candidates being given priority.
On the other hand, Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) together with Universities Academic Staff Union (Uasu) and Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) suggested that schools’ reopening be rescheduled to September.
In a joint statement, the three bodies had also proposed that national exams be pushed to the first quarter of 2021.