Education CS George Magoha has alerted parents to brace themselves for earlier school resumption dates if the Coronavirus (Covid-19) curve flattens in the next two or three weeks.
The CS spoke while assessing the level of preparedness at the Wote Technical Training College in Makueni County on Friday, August 28.
Magoha stated that the Covid-19 committee will meet to prepare new reopening dates if the curve flattens in a fortnight or three weeks.
“We are observing the curve and when it hits 5% in the next three weeks, we then can sit down and make hard decisions together.
“We really must get our children to schools. We want to see whether we can reopen earlier and conditions will determine,” Magoha alerted.
However, he reiterated that the choice to reopen schools was solely based on President Uhuru Kenyatta’s decision.
Magoha further criticised technical and vocational training institutions countrywide for not hastening and preparing themselves for resumption.
He urged institution heads to rely on youths under the Kazi Mtaani initiative to prepare schools as they offered cheap labour rather than having schools incur extra costs.
The CS also disclosed that he was working in tandem with his Interior Ministry colleague Fred Matiang’i to curb corruption against public resources designated towards reopening of schools.
“We are creating a system where every public secondary school gets between 50 and 100 desks. However, we are going to implement this with the help of the Interior Ministry to ensure no public money is lost and also have onboard all youth leaders in every sub-county,” the CS stated.
On Tuesday, August 25, he hinted that schools might re-open before January 2021 as planned. Magoha scrapped off the entire 2020 academic year and cancelled the KCPE and KCSE exams.
He, however, has been under pressure from Parliament, the World Health Organisation and a section of education stakeholders to reopen schools before September 2020.
