This archive report was first published on 29 August 2021.
Kenya's education sector was severely impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, with President Uhuru Kenyatta announcing the closure of all learning institutions on March 15 to curb the spread of the virus.
Education Cabinet Secretary Prof George Magoha appointed an Education Taskforce Committee on Covid-19 to advise on reopening schools and reorganizing the academic calendar.
As a result, there was a shift to online learning, with high-end private and international schools continuing their studies, while thousands of learners in public schools went without learning for nine months.
The pandemic exposed the gap in the education system, despite the government investing over Ksh32.2 billion ($292.7 million) in digital literacy programs in public schools since 2013.
More than 1,168,798 electronic devices were distributed to all 22,000 public primary schools, but public school teachers complained of insufficient equipment to enable them to roll out digital classrooms.
As an alternative, the government rolled out broadcast lessons through radio and TV, in partnership with the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation, but the program was criticized by teachers' unions for being shallow and ineffective.
The government also attempted to roll out community-based programs, but this was halted after a parent moved to court to stop the rollout.
The pandemic also led to the postponement of national examinations, with Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha releasing a crash 2020 academic calendar in September 2020 to enable schools to recover the lost year.
The crash calendar saw Form Four students and Standard Eight pupils sit their national examinations in April, and the Ministry of Education contracted the 2021 school calendar to run from July to early 2022, with a view to reverting to the traditional January to December schedule in January 2023.
