Primary and high school students in their hundreds of thousands prepared to report back to their schools after being at home for 10 months.
However as learning resumes in full gear from Monday, January 4, some schools will remain closed for various reasons, among them damages by the environment and permanent closure.
Some institutions such as Liter Girls Secondary School in Elgeyo Marakwet County were buried in landslides.
Chesegon Primary School in West Pokot County was swept away by floods and landslides and will also remain closed.
At least 39 schools have either been partly destroyed or entirely flooded by lake water from lakes Baringo and Bogoria whose levels increased in 2020.
A number of private schools were closed as their investors transformed their property for other economic activities as they sought to mitigate the effects of Covid-19. Some schools were turned into chicken farms while others were transformed into residences and guest houses.
In an address by Ministry of Education CS George Magoha on Sunday, January 3, he announced that students from all the affected schools would be transferred to existing institutions.
The government has also allocated funds for the reconstruction of the pschools which were damaged by floods and landslides.
“We have already received Ksh100 million from the Ministry of Education. We have the designs of the classrooms, administration block, dormitories and other structures and they have been approved by the ministry,” Liter Girls Secondary School Principal Hellen Kimutai said.
The National Youth Service (NYS) has been deployed to help expedite the reconstruction of schools before the end of the year.
Speaking in an interview on Monday morning, Education CAS Zack Kinuthia stated that the government expected a 96% resumption of students.
He also addressed the concern that schools would face congestion problems when full learning resumes.
“The issue of social distancing in our schools will be a bit challenging and if we were to give up, so many students will not be able to go to school.
“Most of us who went to public schools looked forward to hearing the teacher saying carry your chairs and let us meet under the tree, why is it controversial now?” he questioned.
Olympic Primary School named the most populous school in the country with a student population of 5,000, experienced overcrowding as pupils returned from the 10-month break.
Speaking at the school on Monday, Magoha promised to provide an additional 140 desks.
“Apart from overcrowding everything else is normal. Every child is masked and most of the masks were provided by the govt of Kenya. We shall also give another 140 desks to this school,” he stated.
