Rain, rain, go away

It was week of mixed feelings, mixed weather and multiple announcements (including some at midnight). Heavy rains continued to cause damage to property and loss of life but the weatherman said that the worst was behind us for now. Elsewhere, more government employees were exposed as working with fake certificates while some parents and schools used the time to sue each other.

Here are the main stories in education this week:

• Schools to reopen on May 13
• Schools' Term Two calendar to be extended
• JSS teachers protest non-permanent employment status

SPOTLIGHT

Reopening set, come rain, come sunshine

At least 2,155 schools may not reopen for the second term on Monday, despite President William Ruto’s order that learning resumes on May 13.

Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu on Thursday said up to five per cent of schools will not resume learning because the infrastructure has been badly damaged by floods.

Some schools in Tana River, Homa Bay and Kisumu counties may not reopen as these areas continue to experience flood-related challenges and will require a lot more repairs before learning resumes.

“Nearly 2,000 schools have been severely affected. We have established adequate mechanisms to enable our students to continue their education smoothly.” -Interior PS Raymond Omollo

For these schools, Machogu said, the government will give Sh1 billion for the repair of the damaged infrastructure through the Constituency Development Fund (CDF).

Earlier in the week, CS Machogu issued a memo to regional, county and subcounty directors of education, requesting reports on the status of their respective institutions by May 8, 2024. He further directed County Education Boards to convene urgent meetings to assess the situation in their respective areas and submit comprehensive reports to the Cabinet Secretary by May 10, 2024.

“The impact of the floods on children is disastrous and threatens their rights." -Mohamed Abdiladif, Ag Country Director, Save the Children Kenya

Save the Children wants the government to conduct a rapid needs assessment on the impact of floods on health, education, water, sanitation and hygiene, livelihoods and protection sectors. They said this in a statement issued on Thursday calling on the government to fast track reconstruction of schools affected by floods ahead of reopening.

The reopening of schools is the prerogative of the government. However, the rush need not have been as acute or haphazard if we had put in place adequate policies that cover continued learning at a national scale without leaving some behind. Stakeholders should speed up any ongoing conversations around this.

Otherwise, who will these students that are now left behind turn to? And will we truly have solved the problem for everyone, or simply created a smaller one under the guise of getting things back ‘to normal’ and sticking to a ‘national’ calendar or exam schedule that doesn’t consider prevailing circumstances? No doubt, it’s a big ask, but it takes the actions of many.

HEADLINES

The week's main stories

• Schools to reopen on May 13: President William Ruto made the announcement following advice from the Kenya Meteorological Department that the prolonged heavy rains have subsided. He also promised that classrooms that floods have destroyed will be repaired before reopening. The recent rains and flooding have resulted in fatalities have also displaced thousands in the worst affected areas.
• Schools' Term Two calendar to be extended: The government is planning to extend Term Two school dates to make up for lost time as a result of a two-week delay in re-opening of learning institutions due to floods. During a briefing on Thursday, the Education CS announced that the second term would be extended to allow schools to adequately cover the syllabus, especially for candidates preparing for the national exams scheduled for November this year.
• JSS teachers protest non-permanent employment status: Members of the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) in Homa Bay County held daylong demonstrations to push the government to employ Junior Secondary School (JSS) teachers on permanent and pensionable terms. Meanwhile JSS teachers in Meru County have vowed not to return to class until the government enrolls them on permanent terms.

INSIGHT

Where next on a remote learning policy?

Over the past few weeks, 'Mother Nature' reminded us that all our plans can be disrupted in a moment's notice. The postponement of the reopening of schools due to recent heavy rains is a situation we hope we don’t see again in the near future. But we cannot remain non-responsive to the lessons such situations bring us.

As schools remained indefinitely closed, a glaring problem quickly emerged and in the midst of uncertainty, some institutions began to keep their students engaged, in preparation for an unknown opening date. Others that had been engaging students on an ongoing basis during the holidays simply extended the learning. But for most, undoubtedly, this is the point at which a national policy or directive would have offered guidance.

Stakeholders argue few steps have been taken to mount an alternative robust remote learning infrastructure to ensure continuity of learning. Johnson Nzioka, the Kenya Primary School Heads Association chairman earlier in the week speaking to The Standard noted that schools might have been engaging learners through local arrangements but no national directive had been issued to cover learners during the extended holidays.

With rapidly changing weather patterns being experienced across the world on an increasing basis, it would be imprudent of us to imagine that the worst of unpredictable weather is behind us.

Kenya Association of International Schools’ Jane Mwangi termed this as an eye-opener for educators to embrace alternative teaching methods.

“This being the second disruption, probably we need to think of an effective out-of-class solution that can be developed slowly so that we can switch to it if we have another disruption,” Mwangi said.

This calendar disruption may have been relatively brief but exposed many areas of improvement for the country. And one worth addressing is continuity of learning during localized or national crises.

PAUSE

NEWS

What else we learned

• The Kenya Women Teachers Association (KEWOTA) has sounded the alarm about the increasing cases of mental illness among Kenyan teachers. They state that the issue has reached alarming levels, adversely affecting the quality of education provided in Kenyan schools.
• The County Government of Nyamira has instituted disciplinary action against 324 employees found with  either fake academic certificates or have been illegally promoted. Out of the county’s workforce of 4,100, 245 workers had irregularly earned promotions while 79 had secured jobs using fake certificates.
• Estonia-based tech education publisher Starcloud is set to partner with Kenya’s education stakeholders to modernize the delivery of learning in the country. They will offer more digitized learning to Kenyan students in early childhood, primary, and secondary levels in line with the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC). The company has enrolled 50 schools onto its platform so far.

QUICK

One liners

• Westwick director denies operating unlicensed nursing school
• TVET graduates giving degree holders a run at the job market
• Race against time as colleges prepare to admit CBC learners
• AWS Launches ‘AI Ready’ offering Kenyans Free AI Education

REGION

What's happening next door?

[UG] 100 pupils of Ewanga primary school miss exams over conjunctivitis: School authorities report that the most affected pupils are those in the lower classes. As a preventive measure to contain the spread of this highly contagious eye disease, the school closed prematurely before May 3, 2024, the official date for the first term holidays. [Read]

[UG] Parliament approves setting up of National Institute for Teacher Education: The institute is aimed at enhancing teacher training programmes in Uganda. It will provide specialized education training programmes for career teachers. [Read]

[TZ] State reassures more education improvements: Three years since she assumed the reins of the country, President Samia has carried education reform agenda on her shoulders, understanding that the sector is the cornerstone of her vision for the country’s economy. [Read]

[TZ] Tanzania’s priorities in education as budget rises to nearly Sh2 trillion: Part of the increase in budget allocation is to fund the implementation of the new education curricula, which partly kicked off in January. The ministry will also focus on supporting research, science, technology & innovation in Tanzania’s development agenda. [Read]

[RW] 25,000 primary school teachers to get laptops: Rwanda Basic Education Board (REB) has announced plans to spend Rwf12 billion to distribute laptops to 25,000 primary school teachers. The move is part of One Laptop per Teacher Programme. [Read]

[RW] Rwanda uses tech to monitor teachers, remote learning: A technology used under the Rwanda Education Quality Improvement Program (RwandaEQUIP) is enabling remote monitoring of teachers’ performance and learning in class. [Read]

DEBATE

Exercising rights - where do PTA's fall?

Two stories caught our attention this week:

1. Makini School Sues Parent for Defamation as Court Rejects Enjoining PTA as Interested Party [Read]
2. Jonathan Gloag Academy Woes Intensify as Parents Sue School Board over Headteacher's Retirement [Read]

Though we didn't cover them in this edition, they shed light on some of the complexities facing schools and parents as far as the legal rights of both parties and the extent of the contractual relationship between schools and parents.

We shall continue to cover this area as we engage with stakeholders to help you understand the responsibilities of each party and how this can drive actual changes on school issues. We're going beyond the headline so you too can propose practical solutions in your schools whether you're a parent, teacher or both.

As most schools prepare to reopen in the new week, we can only hope that the meteorological department is right about the rain being gone for now. We can be certain that it shall come again another day.

That's all for this edition. Please share any feedback as we continue to shape This Week in Education.