Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu sought to ease concerns from parents on how all schools will reopen seamlessly on Monday, May 13 with the ongoing heavy rains.
Machogu was speaking in Lang’ata Constituency on Thursday May 9, 2024, during an assessment of schools in the county following an order by President William Ruto on the reopening of schools for second term.
CS Machogu in his statement addressed concerns raised over the state of schools that were affected by heavy rains and floods which saw the reopening postponed twice, stating that the school reopening will proceed as instructed by the President.
He noted that this will go on as scheduled following the Ministry’s approval that only a small percentage of schools nationwide are in a bad position to reopen.
According to the CS, only 2% of the schools around the country are in bad shape based on the report from officials within the Ministry of Education.
Machogu on school reopening
“We have done an assessment on each and every school. As I said my regional director of education, and all the senior officers from the Ministry of Education and the County directors countrywide are out in the field, the purpose of them being to come up with a report specifically indicating the schools that are badly affected. In fact, we are getting those reports on a daily basis. Otherwise, about 98% of our schools are ready for opening on Monday,” said the CS.
Machogu further revealed that a report received by the Ministry indicated that the specific schools that are badly affected such that they cannot reopen is about 2% and that they have the specific names of those schools.
Also Read: Ruto Announces Date Schools Will Reopen
According to Machogu, the Ministry is working to come up with ways and means of how it is able to extend learning to the learners who are affected.
The CS said that the forecast by the Kenya Meteorological Department (KMD) confirmed that the situation will not be bad as the rains are expected to reduce.
While addressing the Ministry’s action on schools that have been affected, CS Machogu said that such schools may be forced to experience delayed reopening as the government works on repairing damaged infrastructure.
Delayed Reopening in Select Schools
“Perhaps the badly affected schools which I said is about 2% are the ones that we may see delayed reopening. For some badly affected schools in Tana River, Kisumu and Homa Bay Counties perhaps we will have to delay for about a week or two as we assess the situation,” he said.
Also Read: Machogu Issues New Directives on School Reopening After Ruto’s Order
CS Machogu furher stated that a total number of ten schools that are being used as camping sites for displaced people will be ready to receive learners on the reopening day.
According to the CS, the Ministry is coordinating with officers from the National Government and the Ministry of Interior so that those hosted in schools can be relocated to other places.
At the same time, Machogu said that the Ministry is also receiving reports of the schools where learning materials were destroyed by the rains which the Ministry will provide learning materials such as textbooks based on the report on the specific schools.
The statement by Machogu came after President Ruto ordered the reopening of schools on May 9, 2024, based by the advice from the Kenya Met Department.
What’s more, the government had initially postponed reopening twice following continued rains that pounded most parts of the country.
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