Due to the August 9 General Election, school officials plan to change the school timetable.
According to the Ministry of Education’s academic calendar for the current academic year, schools will begin the second term mid-term on August 11, two days after the August 9 election date, which means that schools will be in session on election day.
Nevertheless, ministry officials said yesterday there was a need to adjust the calendar to ensure that learners take their half term break before the election date to allow for the institutions to be used as polling centers.
Officials indicated that in the 2017 rerun presidential election on October 26, all schools were closed to allow the institutions to serve as polling stations on election day.
Polling stations
“During the repeat presidential election, the Ministry made a slight adjustment to the school calendar to accommodate the exercise. It will be the same case this year since the elections will be held in the middle of the term so there is no cause for alarm,” said the officials..
Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha has previously caution against the malicious mischief
of school property during the voting exercise.
In the 2017 August 8 election, schools were closed earlier than scheduled to allow IEBC to use the institutions as polling or tallying centres.
A revised school programme for the current year indicates that Second Term commences on July 11 and runs for 10 weeks until September 16 while the third term will start on September 26 and run up to November 25.
As the country prepares for the General Election, learning institutions are also rushing against time to cover most of their syllabus at least by the time the General Election is held.
Makeup classes
Most learning institutions have adjusted their learning programmes accordingly in an attempt to compensate for the election break since most of the schools are used as polling or tallying centres.
Some of the schools have initiated special learning schedules for makeup classes, especially for examination classes, to cover the time that will be taken for electoral activities.
The Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) Coast Chapter chair David Mulei is optimistic that learning will not be disrupted unless in the event of a run-off.
“The only fear we have is if there will be a run-off in the presidential race, but as it stands, schools will be on half term, therefore we believe that it will not affect the syllabus,” Mulei told People Daily.
Institutions of higher learning have also not been left behind in ensuring they cover as much as they can.
At Technical University of Mombasa (TUM), Vice Chancellor Prof Laila Abubakar said learning at the institution had been adjusted, with the institution projecting to close by July 31.
“We had already adjusted our calendar because we knew there will be no need to keep students in school during elections, for us we made the adjustments so that we can complete the syllabus within its timelines, so closing will not affect us at all,” said Abubakar.
She told People Daily that part of the adjustments saw previous some reduced to a week and the ongoing semester will end on July 26 and open on September 5. The VC said the institution is undertaking peace sensitisation so that youth can maintain peace.
“We started our semester early because we anticipated an early closure, meaning that students will have completed exams by July 26 so that they can break for the holiday. For us, we will not be affected because we had planned for it,” said Prof Peter Gichagi Deputy vice Chancellor in charge of research and extension at TUM
