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How Elections Will Disrupt School Academic Calendar

How Elections Will Disrupt School Academic Calendar

How Elections Will Disrupt School Academic Calendar.

The government’s order for schools to close for half-term on August 2 to allow for elections has thrown an already chaotic school calendar into disarray.

The abrupt announcement made on Monday by Education CS George Magoha means that the rush by schools to complete the syllabus before the return to the traditional January-December cycle has been disrupted.

The arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020 caused the school calendar to be reorganized.

The KCPE and KCSE exams for 2021 were moved to March 2022, making the 2022 academic year begin on April 25.

Term two of the reorganized school calendar began on July 11 and will end on September 16.

The midterm was supposed to take place over three days, from August 11 to 14.

“This communication supersedes any earlier communication on the closure of basic education institutions,” Magoha said on Monday.

He instructed students to resume classes on August 11, 2022, in light of the upcoming elections on August 9.

However, if there is a run-off election or the announcement of poll results is delayed, the stay-at-home order may have to be extended beyond August 11.

If the above scenarios are accompanied by poll-related chaos as a result of high political temperatures, the extension could be indefinite.

If this is the case, the prolonged shutdown could cause syllabus coverage for the November and December 2022 national exams to be delayed.

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.

This will also be the first time Grade 6 students take the Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA) under the Competency-Based Curriculum.

According to the Constitution, if no candidate receives 50% plus one vote in the previous election, a new election must be held within 30 days.

This means that if there is no clear winner in the August 9 elections, assuming the results are released on August 10, new elections will be held on September 9 or 12 because September 10 and 11 are weekends.

This will be one week before school closes on September 16, implying that schools will be closed again for elections during the week students will be sitting or preparing to sit their end-of-term exams.

If the above scenario occurs, the start of term three, scheduled for September 26, may have to be postponed and new term dates set.

Unless students complete their end-of-term exams before September 9, the possibility of third term beginning in early October is very real.

This is due to the fact that activities surrounding the announcement of the run-off election results may last several days, at least until Friday, September 16.

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According to Parents Association Chairman Nicholas Maiyo, the government considered all of these scenarios before announcing school closures.

“It’s not cast on stone, if anything happens we can still announce new dates. We will still open schools on August 11 and before the repeat election, we will also have to close the schools to necessitate the IEBC carry out their roles,” Maiyo said.

He stated that, unlike exams, elections cannot be rescheduled at the last minute, so the end-of-term exams in September may still be postponed.

“We wouldn’t like our children to be in schools when we are doing voting so we will still tackle the dates on exams in case there is a runoff.

"The most important is the Knec exam but all the exams in the middle we can reschedule,” Maiyo affirmed. 

How Elections Will Disrupt School Academic Calendar

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