The Government of Kenya has annulled the academic year of 2020 for primary and secondary schools due to the continuous upsurge of numbers of COVID-19 infections.
According to the Education Ministry, primary and secondary schools will resume in 2021. Terminal examination, the Primary Certificate Examination and the Kenya Secondary Certificate have been cancelled too.
Education Minister, George Magoha, explained it is practically impossible to achieve social distancing among children.
“Based on the rising trend, we agreed to shelve classes. The country will be severely affected as all other children will lose the year. In consultation with the Ministry of Health, stakeholders agreed that reducing physical numbers in classes will affect learning, schools should only resume if cases reduce consistently for 14 days and social and physical distancing is the most critical factor in ensuring the safety of learners, handwashing and using masks and monitoring temperature will be crucial too,” Mr Magoha noted.
However, all learners in grade one to four, Standard five to seven and Form two to Three will remain in the current classes in 2021, but there will be two Form One classes in 2021, according to the Minister.
This decision was taken based on the increasing number of COVID-19 cases in the country. The East African country has recorded over 8,200 cases.
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President Uhuru Kenyatta had earlier announced a partial lift of the curfew on hotspots while restrictions on certain areas have also been eased.
Kenya is one of the most impacted countries in East Africa including other countries like Djibouti, Somalia and Sudan.
Kenya is part of other African countries that employed mass testing of the virus at hotspots. The country’s borders remain closed and ban on public gatherings remain in force.