At around 1.20am on Monday, the Ministry of Education announced that it was postponing schools opening date for the second term across the country.
The announcement was made in the dead of the night, just a few hours to the opening of the first day of the new term. Now, all schools will be opened on May 6, the statement by Machogu said.
“The Ministry of Education has resolved to postpone the reopening of all primary and secondary schools by one week, to Monday, May 6, 2024,” he said.
The postponement was attributed to the ongoing devastating floods in many parts of the country that have left thousands of people homeless and over 80 people dead.
“In the face of the ongoing heavy rains, the Ministry of Education last week directed its field officers to submit data from all Basic Education Learning Institutions countrywide to assist the Government in assessing the readiness of the schools for the Second Term opening on Monday, April 29, 2024,” said Machogu.
“Reports received at the Ministry of Education, corroborated with data from other relevant Government agencies, show that a number of schools in various regions of the country have been adversely affected by the rains.”
He added that the devastating effects of the rains in some of the schools is so severe that it would be imprudent to risk the lives of learners and staff before water-tight measures are put in place to ensure adequate safety of all affected school communities.
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“The Ministry will work with relevant agencies and stakeholders to put in place measures to mitigate the adverse effects of the rains and provide regular updates on all developments as pertains to the education sector,” he said.
It was not clear why the cabinet secretary had to wait until the dead of the night to make the announcement, even though it had been clear throughout the week that the impact of the ongoing floods was too huge to allow kids to resume schooling as normally as they usually do.
