Knec Opens Junior High School Portal Amid Learning Disruption
The Kenya National Examinations Council is also expected to launch a portal today for students to choose junior secondary schools.
From August 15 to August 30, the portal will be open.
Both public and private schools have already been registered by the ministry to host junior secondary schools in January.
During the commissioning of the new Mitihani House, Magoha stated that registered institutions will not have to re-register.
“Learners shall be offered placement in all existing registered public and private schools,” Magoha said.
The learners will be placed based on a variety of factors other than the summative assessment.
Students in grades 4, 5, and 6 take school-based assessments, which account for 40% of the summative assessment.
“Selection of admission will be premised on principles of merit, affirmative action, choice of schools, and institutions’ declared capacity,” Magoha said.
Learners will also be able to choose from a list of registered private schools through the portal.
On the other hand, Magoha advised parents to choose private schools that they can afford.
“Parents shall meet the cost of learning in private schools as is the usual practice,” he said.
According to the CS, the 100% transition policy will also be implemented in junior high schools.
Upon resumption, students will study for nearly a month before taking a one-week break until the third term begins on September 17.
Knec Opens Junior High School Portal Amid Learning Disruption
The students are then expected to study from September 26 to November 5, with a break for the holidays.
Grade 6 students will take the Kenya Primary School Education Assessment for four days beginning November 28.
All at the same, Class 8 students will take the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education exam.
Due to the directive to close schools, some schools retained students to complete the exams, while others had to suspend testing.
On Monday, students were released from a Kiambu school that had been designated as a tallying center.
Teachers, on the other hand, were required to complete exams before being released.
A parent from the school said, “The students were given six exams on Saturday and the remaining papers were done on Sunday.”
Learning Disruption
When the nation’s first incidence of COVID-19 was announced in early 2020, numerous events and programs were postponed.
A year’s worth of disruptions to learning in schools, colleges, and universities led the Ministry of Education to dramatically alter the academic calendar.
The terms were condensed on the calendar by the ministry, making one term last even two months. That will come to an end in December when the calendar returns to normal in January.
The majority of Kenyans recently vented their anger at Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha after he abruptly ordered the untimely start of a one-week mid-term vacation in the second term to prepare for the August 9 General Election.
A week has been added to the break by Prof. Magoha, which is worse because there were delays in the counting and tallying of the votes.
Knec Opens Junior High School Portal Amid Learning Disruption
Due to the ongoing general election, students have lost two weeks and are likely to lose even more.
The Ministry of Education has ordered that students take a half-term break on August 2 and return on August 11.
This was dependent on whether or not the election was completed.
Wafula Chebukati, chairman of the IEBC, announced the results yesterday.
“Schools and parents are advised to ensure that learners from all basic education institutions proceed on their final half-term effective Tuesday, August 2, and resume on Thursday, August 11,” read a circular.
However, on August 13, Education CS George Magoha directed that schools resume on August 18 and
Many parents, nevertheless, were prepared to send their kids back to school on Monday.
They fear that, like during the COVID-19 pandemic, the academic schedule may be impacted.
Teachers have also asked for more time to finish the curriculum since they need to prepare the pupils for the end-of-year national exams.
It is now obvious that two weeks of learning have already been wasted, and we haven’t even begun the third week without any pupils in the class.
The country’s two remaining 8-4-4 candidate classes are listed on the educational calendar.
Studies will be significantly impacted if students miss class for these unrelated reasons.
Since academic periods are shorter than usual and teachers may not finish the curriculum despite their best efforts, it will not be possible to make up for the lost learning time.
ALSO READ:
With events like music and theater festivals, as well as sports competitions, the school calendar is excessively packed with activities that interfere with academic time.
Knec Opens Junior High School Portal Amid Learning Disruption