Ensure nothing at all interrupts school calender
Kenya is already facing a very tough academic year in 2022. This is the second year in which the academic calender has four terms in primary and secondary levels.
The 4-term year was formulated to enable the country catch up with the time lost when schools closed for almost nine months due to the corona pandemic.
The 4-term year has been a crushing burden to parents. Most schools are charging normal fees for each term despite the fact that the term durations have been drastically reduced. This is very unfair. But that is a story for another day.
Despite being tight, the year was cruising to a good finish when it suffered a major disruption due to the 2022 general elections held on August 9, 2022. The Government closed schools from August 2-18, 2022, to facilitate the preparations for the elections, voting, and counting of votes.
The two weeks that were lost are going to have a particularly adverse effect on the Std 8 and Form 4 candidates, who start sitting their examinations from October to December 2022. The disruption could not have come at a worse time.
There are also ominous signs. The election outcome has been disputed by Azimio presidential candidate, Raila Odinga, who lost. He is taking his case to the Supreme Court. If the Supreme Court annuls those results, it means that a fresh election will have to be held during the period when candidates are just about to start their examinations.
This will mean that the country risks losing at least another one week in the academic calender.
It is time for the Ministry of Education to convene education stakeholders meeting to look at these scenarios and come up with the flight paths which offer the best possible outcomes for the remaining academic year. The possibility that the presidential election might be rerun, as well as the two weeks already lost, require stakeholders to seek ways to ameliorate its adverse effects.
Education Cabinet Secretary, Prof. George Magoha, struck the right tone when he said that nothing would be allowed to interfere with the academic year. This was after several classes were razed by fire in Kisumu Boys.
This brings to the fore a very critical issue. Due to the inevitable high-pressure period between now and the exams, students will come under tremendous stress. The Ministry of Education and the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) must work with the principals and teachers, especially those in secondary boarding schools, to find ways of keeping down the levels of stress and anxiety among students.
They must also help schools establish early warning mechanisms to monitor when the pressure gauge is in dangerous territory. Schools must be very proactive to ensure that there is no possibility of a return to the burning of schools witnessed some years ago.
Finally, there must be a well-coordinated and seamless transition from the tenure of Prof. Magoha to the incoming cabinet secretary as one of the critical paths of ensuring minimal disruption of the academic year.
It is noteworthy that this transition will be happening bang at the onset of examinations. So this collaboration will be important because any gaps by the incoming minister will be a threat to the stability of the academic calender.
Nothing must be allowed to disrupt the smooth completion of the 2022 academic calender as planned. The country must see a return to the 3-term academic year as scheduled in 2023. Parents cannot survive another 4-term year. As it were, they are already at the end of their wits.
