All the Kenyan Schools closed for nearly two months beginning early March giving way for national examinations for the 2.1 million candidates registered for the 2021 Kenya Certificate of Primary Education and Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education examiners.
Another key preparations for the rollout of Grade Six started as well, with current Grade Five students expected to move to the new class when schools reopen in April.
The government through the Ministry of education is currently dealing with the headache of ensuring that the additional classrooms needed to anchor Junior Secondary Schools are ready as transitions begin early next year.
This year, the ministry has programmed for students in the 8-4-4 education system to take two national exams, as CBC students will take their first national exam in December, ahead of the transition to junior secondary school.
The first 8-4-4 tests administration started in March, followed by the second cohort expected in December.
According to Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) Chief Executive David Njengere, 1,225,507 candidates will take KCPE exams in 28,316 centers, while 831,015 candidates will take KCSE exams in 10,413 centers.
As per to the revised school calendar, all students, with the exception of candidates, were dismissed from school on Friday, March 4, 2022.
This marked the end of the 2021 school year, with exams started on March 7.
The students will continue remaining at home until April 25, when schools will reopen for the first term of the 2022 school year.This is unlike the previous years when schools were reopened for the first term in every January of the new year.
Unlike in the past when schools could be closed for one month holiday i.e from late March or early April to early May when the school calender was normal, the holiday for this year has been as well as the opening dates have been extended for two months with 2022 academic year set to begin on April 25, with the first term lasting until July 1 thus thereafter there shall be an halfterm break as indicated below
Halfterm Break 26/05/2022 29/5/2022 3 Days
This extension of school holiday/opening dates was meant to cater for the national examinations administration as well as marking and release of kcpe and kcse examinations.
Second term begins on July 11 and runs until September 16, while the third term runs from September 26 to November 25.
He also stated that curriculum designs for Grade Six have been sent to schools in preparation for the students. Nancy Macharia, Chief Executive of the Teachers Service Commission (TSC), stated that the commission had prepared all teachers for the gradual implementation of CBC.
Upon the implementation of Grade Six in May 2022 and Junior Secondary in 2023, the Commission has made the necessary arrangements to train teachers to ensurea smooth transition.
According to Dr. Nancy Macharia, 229,292 teachers have been trained on CBC in preparation for the Grade Six rollout. Further training will be provided in April 2022 as part of a deliberate plan to train all.
