Schools may be disrupted as the country prepares for the August 9 general election because the majority of them will be used as polling or tallying stations.
This makes it more difficult for normal teaching and learning to take place.
The 2022 calendar will begin in April, signaling yet another race against time to restore normalcy — the traditional January to December cycle.
Primary and secondary schools will remain open for the second semester, which begins on July 11.
It will run for ten weeks, ending on September 17.
According to Nicholas Maiyo, chairman of the National Parents Association, schools will need to close a few days before elections to allow for the preparation of polling stations.
According to Maiyo, the political temperatures could cause a fear of unrest, resulting in the panic closure of some institutions.
“This is a scenario in which all education stakeholders must sit down and review the calendar in order to accommodate the election period,” he said.
According to his suggestions, institutions could be forced to take early mid-term exams that could be extended from three days to one week or even longer.
The midterm will take place over three days, from August 11 to 14.
“We can take a one-week break with schools closing on August 7 to allow for elections, and hopefully things will be back to normal by August 14,” Maiyo said.
“Anything outside of this will jeopardize the school calendar.”
However, there is concern that a prolonged shutdown will cause syllabus coverage to be delayed for classes taking 2022 national exams in November and December.
Schools will reopen for term 1 on April 24, 2022, for a 10-week period ending on July 1.
The second term will run from July 11 to September 16, and the third term will run from September 26 to November 25.
Students in Std 7 and Form 3 will take their KCPE and KCSE exams in November and December.
The KCPE exam will be held between November 28 and December 1, while the KCSE exam will be held between December 1 and December 23.
“We have a limited time to prepare the candidates, so closing schools for more than a week will disrupt the calendar,” said Indimuli Kahi, chairman of the Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Association.
During the same time period, primary schools will administer the national assessment for the competency-based curriculum’s pioneer cohort.
It is expected that by the end of 2022, all of the time lost during the school closure will have been recovered, and that the academic calendar will have returned to normal by January 2023.
