2020 Academic Calendar: Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha has announced that learners will not repeat classes in January. This comes barely days after president Uhuru Kenyatta announced that all learners will resume classes in January, leave for Form Four, Standard Eight and Grade Four students who resumed learning in October.
Following this declaration, Magoha has directed that nearly 10 million learners out of school due to restrictions meant to curb spread of coronavirus resume radio, television and online lessons run by the government ahead of reopening of schools in January.
Salaries teachers may earn in new TSC basic pay raise proposal
Magoha said the timetable for the rest of learners – Grade 1-3, Standard Five to Seven and Form One to Three – who are not presently in school, will be reviewed to ensure that no child loses a full academic year that would delay transition.
Magoha made the announcement at Maragua Ridge Secondary School during an inspection of delivery of desks and chairs to learning institutions in Murang’a and Kirinyaga counties.
Sources further say that an academic plan will be rolled out in January that may see the two school terms covered by end of May. This means that by June, all learners will have started a new academic year that would run to end of December.
The effect of this is that all the candidates will have covered all the lost schoolwork for this year and also completed the 2021 work, hence salvaging the imminent loss of an academic year.
This means the present Standard Seven and Form Three learners, who were expected to sit national examinations next year, will still sit the tests hence guarantee transition. “We shall re-arrange the timetable in a way that will ensure learners don’t lose a full academic year after a long break due to outbreak of Covid-19,” Magoha said.
“The examination timetable will be re-looked and made public though not likely to be much different from one that was issued before,” said Magoha.
According to the old school schedule, candidates are expected to sit national examinations next year. Candidates are expected to sit KCPE exams starting March 22, 2021 with KCSE starting on March 25. Marking of the exams had been spread between April 19 and May 7.
2020 Academic Calendar: Additional reporting from The Standard.