By Our Reporter
The Ministry of Education has released new school calendar dates for Teacher Training Colleges.
New term dates for basic education learners will give them long holidays and reduced half terms before the start of new academic year.
The new dates were released on Friday 4th December 2020 by the Education Ministry’s Principal Secretary Dr. Belio Kipsang
The memo was copied to key education leaders including the Education CS Prof. George Magoha and TSC CEO Nancy Macharia.
The calendar will cover 2021 to 2023, with the normal school calendar expected to resume in January 2024.
All continuing learners, grade one to three, class five to seven and form one to three, will resume studies on January 4 for their second term.
International schools will also open on the same date, which brings to an end of the 10 month closure since March due to outbreak of Covid-19.
Dr. Kipsang noted that all Grade Four Competence Based Curriculum learners, who resume their second term on 12th October 2020 jointly with the candidate classes-class 8 and Form Four, will transit to Grade five in July next year.
Grade four and incoming form one students who are class 8 graduates will remain at home as the other learners complete their term three, hence joining Form One in July 2021 together with all 4 year-olds joining their pre-primary one.
“All field Education officers are asked to ensure strict adherence to these dates and give guidance to the stakeholders,” noted Kipsang.
Term Two learning will last for 11 weeks from 4th January 2021 to 19th March 2021 after which students will break for a seven-week holiday from 20th March 2021 to 9th May 2021, to pave way for administering and marking of both KCPE and KCSE examinations.
According to the revised new term dates, a ten-week Term three will begin on 10th May 2021 to 16th July 2021 with a three days half-term being slotted from 3rd June 2021 to 7th June 2021.
Thereafter continuing learners will proceed for a one week holiday from 17th July 2021 to 25th July 2021 which will mark an end of the 2020 academic calendar and the start of new 2021 academic year on 26th July 2021.
Unlike previous years where students had the luxury of long holidays before beginning of a new academic year, the revised term dates have a seven weeks holiday immediately after 2022’s Term three, from 5th March 2022 to 24th April 2022.
Half term has been reduced to three days in 2021-2023 academic years with the longest half term being one week in the 2022 academic year from 6th to 13th August.
Some 10 million learners are out of class due to restrictions placed to curb the spread of Covid-19, with only Grade 4, Class 8 and Form 4 students returning back to school on 12th October 2020 for their second term.
The next KCPE and KCSE cohorts who are currently Class 7 and Form 3 leaners respectively are expected to start their examinations in March 2022, with KCPE starting on 7th March 2022 and ending 10th March 2022.
KCSE is expected to start from 11th March 2022 and end on 1st April 2022 for a three week period of marking from 4th April 2022 to 22nd April 2022.
Colleges offering Diploma in Teacher Education Secondary option will have their 13-weeks first term beginning from 4th January 2021 and ending on 2nd April 2021.
They will have a 14-weeks second term starting on 3rd May 2021 to 6th August 2021 and third term beginning on 30th August 2021 to 12November 2021 for 11 weeks.
Colleges offering Diploma in Primary Teacher Education will have their first term beginning on 3rd May 2021 and ending on 6th August 2021 after 14 weeks.
The second term will last for 11 weeks, starting from 30th August 2021 to 12th November 2021 and term three starting on 3rd January 2022 to 1st April 2022 for 13 weeks.
The teachers training colleges’ academic calendar will last for 38 weeks both for colleges offering Diploma in Education Secondary option and diploma in primary education.
