Primary school pupils and high school students have been dealt a blow after the Education CS George Magoha announced that schools are set to reopen in January 2021.
This means that the 2020 year has been lost.
“Schools should only reopen when the daily confirmed cases have reduced for a consecutive 14 days which is what we call flattening of the curve,” CS Magoha said.
However, class 8 and form four students are set to resume school in September.
“Ladies and gentlemen faced with all these uncertainties’, schools will reopen in January, this is based on the assumption that the curve will have flattened in January. There shall be no KCPE or KCSE examination, the 2020 cohort will sit for their examination next year” The CS said.
This means that there will be two form 1 classes in 2021.
Magoha said that the stakeholders had reached at that decision after realizing that social and physical distancing is impossible in most schools and handwashing facilities will be installed in schools once they are reopened.
The CS however made an exemption for TVETs, colleges, and universities which are set to reopen in September 2020 after undergoing a thorough inspection.
“ Reopening of universities will be on a case to case basis based on approved compliance,” Magoha said that universities that flout the regulations risked closure.
Last week, schools reopened in Tanzania whose president controversially declared the country COVID-19 free.
The virus which has disrupted learning globally has infected 11,771,331 people with 8,067 of the cases having been recorded in Kenya.
