Schools re-open after fortnight break

All is set for school reopening today after a two-week, mid-term break to allow for last week’s General Election.

Education Cabinet Secretary Prof George Magoha ruled out any further closure of schools, not even in the event of a repeat election. This he said was aimed at recovering lost time in the already constrained academic calendar.

Magoha said the country is peaceful and children can now safely traverse across the country to get to their schools, as school heads said they were in last minute rush to restock their stores with food supplies.

“Having consulted widely with the Ministry of Interior and other stakeholders, there is absolute peace prevailing in the country and there is no cause for alarm. The country is extremely peaceful, from Mombasa to Busia, Eldoret to Marsabit and we thank God for that peace,” said the CS, when he inspected construction of Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) classrooms at Ofafa Jericho secondary school in Nairobi.

Certain situations

“When the time comes for Government to proclaim itself on certain situations, for example, if there is an election somewhere and will take a day, we are not going to ask our children in boarding schools to go home again. It is far much wiser to ensure children in boarding schools remain there and do other things and avoid the classrooms where voting will be taking place,” he explained.

A spot check in a number of public schools revealed all was set to have students back for the second half of Term Two.

Principals said all logistics were in place and they expect that all learners will be back on time to continue with the syllabus.Nakuru West Secondary School Principal Apollo Kamau said they have procured enough supplies to last them for the remainder of the term and have had to readjust their budgets.

 “All is set, and we expect students back as per the circular from the Ministry of Education, studies are to resume immediately,” said Kamau. 

In Laikipia’s Ndururumo High School, students reported back yesterday, a day earlier than other schools, to witness the sendoff of their principal Wilson Kamunya who passed on while they were on short holiday.The funeral service was conducted at the school field before the body interred in Nyandarua.

Magoha said the Ministry will continue working with the Independent and Electoral Boundaries Commission (IEBC) even though suggesting that tallying centres should be moved away from  schools.

Magoha gave government’s scorecard in terms of achieving its education targets, stating that much more still needs to be done.

He said that being an Education Minister during and post Covid-19 time was a difficult task but the Government remained courageous and hopes to complete everything it is supposed to.

“We hope to complete everything we are supposed to so that the incoming Education CS finds a bedroom that is clean, a bed that is made and the carpet on the floor. We do not want broken pots all over the place,” he said.

Sincere apologies

To this end, he said that they have agreed as a Government to continue completing the CBC classrooms, which were started about seven months ago so that when the new CS takes over, has a smooth place to start from.

He said that he might be the only CS who has served during an active pandemic and that has made it extremely difficult to run the Ministry thus, had to be ‘extremely firm’ in order to move forward.

“I want to thank the public, especially the parents for allowing us to be extra firm so that we can normalise the education calendar, it was not a walk in the park,” Magoha said.

“During that process of firmness, we may have been misconstrued and if someone was offended at that time, my sincere apologies, there is nobody who is perfect but then work must be done,” he added.

He pointed out that the Ministry had targets to build CBC classrooms where 75 percent have been delivered adding that the remainder will be completed.

–  Reporting by Irene Githinji, Roy Lumbe and David Macharia