- Schools have been closed since March due to the coronavirus pandemic
- Education CS states that the national exams could be sat for in 2021
- Mental Health and Psychosocial considerations during the COVID-19 pandemic
KCPE and KCSE candidates are likely to sit for their National Exams in April 2021 with the Ministry of Education readies for the resumption of schools in September.
Schools were closed in March as the government sought to address and contain the prevalence of the coronavirus pandemic.
Earlier this month, President Uhuru Kenyatta asked education stakeholders to begin preparations that should see the schools opened and learning resumption in September.
Education Cabinet Secretary Prof George Magoha has, however, painted a grim image for this year’s candidates pointing out that there is a possibility that schools might not reopen in September as intended due to the rising number of Covid-19 infections.
The Cabinet Secretary was speaking before the Senate Ad Hoc Committee on Covid-19 in the country.
We are looking at the calendar at what time we can open schools and do exams, if we opened in September we might do exams in April, beyond that it won’t be feasible to do the exams. Although we intended to open in September, as of now I can’t say if that will be possible. At this stage, our numbers are going up, and we might have a peak in September or October and we will decide if we would want to open our schools.
“In terms of the examination timetable, for now, we are hoping after we have consulted thoroughly, that perhaps the latest we can do exams and still escape is April, beyond April, Mr Chairman, we must be prepared for what I don’t want to say but you can imagine,” he said.
Close to two million candidates registered to sit for this year’s national examinations. According to statistics by the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) 1,938,667 candidates were sit for the final primary and secondary examinations in 2020.
Of this number some 751,150 candidates were to sit for the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examinations while 1,187,517 others were to sit for the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examinations.
Kenya hit a record high for new coronavirus cases on Wednesday after 184 cases were confirmed in 24 hours, pushing the tally to 4,044.
Two more patients died raising the death toll to 107.
