Following President Uhuru Kenyatta's pronouncement on the closure of schools, parents have been grappling with how to handle their children's learning.
Questions have abounded as to how parents will handle the novel concept of homeschooling with little guidelines offered by the Ministry of Education.
Speaking on Citizen Tv Day Break on Tuesday, March 17, Zachary Kinuthia, the Chief Administrative Secretary at the Ministry of Education, declared that elearning cannot realistically work in Kenya.
"Perhaps in 10 to 15 years we will be able to go through elearning at home," stated Kinuthia.
Speaking for the ministry, the Chief Adminsitrative Secretary qualified his position by providing that there were certain key ingredients lacking to enable elearning to work in the country.
"I do not think public schools can afford elerning because as you know the President's first agenda was to introduce digital learning in school, but this is still a work in progress," Kinuthia conceded.
Kinuthia alluded to the fact that had the President's project been implemented then the minsitry would have been in a position to implement elearning at home.
"When we have a laptop for every child in school or a tablet then we will be able to do elearrning but from the minsintry I cannot sit here and say elearning will continue at home," noted Kinuthia.
He further asserted that the Ministry could not give guidelines on an elearning strategy while cognizant of the fact that not all Kenyans had the means to implement it.
"We are not eqaully enabled. The Minsitry of Education is the only ministry that touches on every home in the country: poor or rich, rural and urban, and we cannot say everyone can afford this," asserted Kinuthia.
As per the Ministry's stance, learners will still be in a position to access the resources offered at school.
"It is the learning that was suspended and the pupils were sent home. But there is no closure of schools from management level. So if you want to go to school to get something or confirm something, the school is open," stated Kinuthia.
As the President's directive remains in place on the indefinite school lockdown, students and pupils are advised to continue studying as the preset school timetable including examination dates will remain in place.
"Nothing will change before the 15th, but if it goes beyond mid-April we will have to readjust the school timetables," concluded Kinuthia.
