Headteachers New Demands to Magoha on KCSE Postponement

File image of KCSE students sitting an exam
File image of KCSE students sitting an exam
File

Secondary school heads have proposed new measures to Education Cabinet Secretary, George Magoha, to avert the rising cases of unrests in the learning institutions.

The headteachers are pushing for the postponement of national exams for two months until normalcy is restored in all the institutions.

Further, they proposed early closing of schools to contain the cases of indiscipline.

The school heads, justifying their move, maintained that the students may not be ready to sit the national examinations scheduled for March next year leading to rising cases of indiscipline.

From left: Education PS Belio Kipsang, KESSHA Chairman Kahi Indimuli, and Education CS George Magoha address a press conference at Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development, on October 1, 2018
KESSHA Chairman Kahi Indimuli (centre) and Education CS George Magoha (right) at a press conference at Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) on October 1, 2018
File

Kenya Secondary School Heads Association (Kessha) chair, Kahi Indimuli, noted that with the spike in cases of unrest, candidates may not have prepared enough to sit for those exams.

Indimuli further added that the teachers have also been affected in their preparations to administer the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE).

“When we brought on board Form Four students last year, these students were left at home for a long time. During the period, they were not properly engaged, and some got into the business while some picked up bad behaviour,” said Indimuli.

Kessha chair further added that the students might have panicked on their realisation that time is running out and they had not prepared enough.

“While at home, they had a lot of free time. They realise they no longer have the freedom even as teachers try to reintegrate them,” said Indumuli.

"Once they came back to school, they have realised that they are not prepared for the examinations and are using bad manners to communicate their frustrations."

The spike in the cases have seen many students apprehended and charged but anxiety remains high in the boarding schools across the country.

This comes as Magoha and his Interior counterpart, Fred Matiang'i, called for the reintroduction of caning in schools to tame the unrests.

"We must discipline our children and we must insist on some things we cannot create a society of animals. So our work is to build schools as they burn them down? It's tough love, our children must understand one thing that it takes sacrifice from parents to get these things," Matiang'i noted.

"I am not a subscriber of those things of human rights of the child, because the Bible says spare the rod and spoil the child, I want us to start talking how we will discipline our children."

On exams and preparation, Magoha urged the students to maintain calm to enable them to sit for the national tests.

“Let our learners maintain calm and be ready to sit examinations because we are going to ensure we have a ‘human face’ in the examinations,” said Magoha.

Education CS George Magoha speaking at a KICD conference in Nairobi on Tuesday, September 14, 2021
Education CS George Magoha speaking at a KICD conference in Nairobi on Tuesday, September 14, 2021
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