As the first term concludes, all primary and secondary schools will close by the end of this week.
The first term began on January 23, at least two weeks later than usual because the government changed the school calendar to compensate for time missed due to the COVID epidemic. It also represented the reinstatement of the normal school calendar of three terms per year, as opposed to the previous two years, when the ministry squeezed them into four.
Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu stated at the commencement of the 2023 academic calendar that the government has been running a tightly constrained and reorganized school calendar in a spirited endeavor to restore the normal term dates.
“This re-organisation of school term dates came at a heavy cost to parents in terms of pressure to clear school fees within short intervals; teachers having heavy workloads, while learners have had to cover more content within extremely short time,” Machogu said.
“I wish to thank all the stakeholders, especially parents and teachers, for withstanding the financial and teaching pressures respectively that came with the shorter school terms as forced upon us by the Covid-19 pandemic. Thanks to all your concerted efforts, we will from January 2023 revert to our normal school calendar,” he added.
The first term also marked the beginning of another phase of Competency-Based Curriculum implementation, as the first class of almost 1.2 million students transitioned to Junior Secondary School (JSS).
The government assigned JSS to existing primary schools while declaring that the Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA) would not be used for junior school placement. At the end of the term, students will take a two-week holiday before returning on May 7.
The second term will last 14 weeks, beginning on May 8 and ending on August 11. Nonetheless, there will be a half-term break on June 29.
The second term will last 14 weeks, beginning on May 8 and ending on August 11. Nonetheless, there will be a half-term break on June 29.
August break is likewise slated to last two weeks, from August 12 to 27, followed by a nine-week third term until October 27.
Except for the examination classes, the remainder of the students will be closed for 10 weeks until January 8, 2023.
Kenya Certificate of Primary Education and KPSEA will begin on October 30th, followed by Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education from November 3rd to November 27th.
