Why KCPE, KCSE candidates may be forced to repeat

KCPE and KCSE candidates could wait a year to sit their exams because of the Covid-19 nightmare that has severely disrupted the academic calendar. 

Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha on Thursday said the earliest the candidates can have the national exams is April 2021, but only if schools reopen in September as planned.

The CS regretted that the virus cases are still surging and it remains unclear whether it would be possible to reopen the schools.

“For now, we are hoping, after we consulted the parents, that the latest we can do exams and still escape is April. Beyond April, we must declare what I don’t want to say,” he said.

Magoha said the ministry is currently burning the midnight oil preparing a new academic calendar and exam timetable for the candidates to take the tests by April next year.

“In terms of the new calendar, the government has to consider the latest time that we can reopen schools is and still do the exams,” Magoha said.

“That process is ongoing and within two weeks, we shall be able to know whether if we reopen in September, we can do the exams perhaps sometimes in April next year.”

He spoke during a virtual meeting with the Senate ad hoc committee on Covid-19 chaired by Nairobi Senator Johnson Sakaja.

During his address to the nation on the pandemic on June 6, President Uhuru Kenyatta directed the Ministry of Education to prepare for the gradual reopening of the schools from September 1.

He ordered the ministry to prepare and release a new academic calendar by mid-August and put in place necessary safety protocols in collaboration with the Ministry of Health.

Magoha revealed to the committee the nightmares his ministry is undergoing putting in place measures to protect learners and teachers from the contagion.

“We're engaging with the MoH to develop any necessary protocols and guidelines before we reopen the schools,” he said.

Ministry officials, led by the CS, have been carrying out an audit of the availability of water and storage tanks in all schools across the country. They are assessing the schools’ capacity to provide sanitiser and masks for teachers and children. 

“We want to tell government agencies the kind of masks we need for our children and teachers,” the CS said.

He is grappling with the decision on whether to have children below six years wear masks.

“We are arguing and debating whether it is rational and right to sanitise the children who are perhaps below six or mask children who are below six. We're engaging the Ministry of Health to help us on this,” Magoha said.

Also giving the ministry sleepless night is whether to test the more than 400,000 teachers for Covid-19 before they are allowed to handle children.

“A decision will be made by the government whether all teachers will be tested before they go to school because one teacher may be accessing 100 or 200 children,” Magoha said.

"We shall ensure that children also do not pass on the coronavirus to the teachers. We want to ensure they have masks, wash hands after every activity and sanitise.”

Education PS Belio Kipsang disclosed that 350 schools have been converted into quarantine centres and the Ministry of Education has sought one month prior to the reopening to disinfect the institutions.

Kipsang said the ministry was allocated Sh2.1 billion to build additional classrooms in secondary schools to allow for required social distancing and another Sh1.9 billion to procure desks.

Concerning the nonpayment of teachers hired by the boards of management, the PS said the ministry already disbursed capitation to all schools to last until the end of the month.

The resources, he said, if utilised well, should cater for BOM teachers and non-teaching staff.

Kipsang confirmed that the ministry has received a request from private schools to cushion them and their staff during this pandemic. The ministry is reviewing the same.