Education CS George Magoha has called for an urgent meeting to discuss the new school reopening dates and how to make the calendar of school activities work.
The agenda of the meeting is to discuss and lay out strategies for recovery of the lost academic year 2020.
The discussion will also base on how to have the normal school calendar resume by 2023.
Zack Kinuthia, Education CAS had earlier proposed for shortening of the school terms.
“Among the proposals we may consider is to compress the second and third terms to ensure that this years’ school calendar ends by June 2021. We are going to rework the school calendar together with education stakeholders and the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD),” he stated.
“The idea is to have 2020, 2021, and 2022 school calendars covered within a short time and have the normal school calendar resume by January 2023,” he further added.
Another headache for discussion was the delaying of the new Form 1 admission on July 2021 which is a proposals under consideration
Back to the CS for Education Prof. George Magoha, stated that students would resume second term when schools reopen in January 5.
The new proposal, will see that a term will run for two and a half months, with one or two-week breaks to accommodate four terms in 2021 instead of three terms.
“The national examinations timetable will also be reviewed and made public soon,” CS Magoha stated.
The Kenya Union of Post Primary Education (KUPPET) Secretary General Akeko Misori, Stated that the biggest challenge was how secondary schools would accommodate an estimated 1 million form one students in schools, and how teachers would go about teaching them.
“The biggest issue is how to compress the next academic year for learners to cover this year’s syllabus within a limited time frame,” he elaborated.
It was further highlighted that the Community Based Learning (CBL) proposal, quashed by the law court would have proven most beneficial for learners during the COVID-19 restriction period.