The Ministry of Education has not yet released any plan for the reopening of kindergarten and nursery schools. UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific & Cultural Organisation has cautioned governments that the children future generations' development will be affected should they neglect schooling children.
According to the UNESCO, in the first 2 or 3 years of primary school, learning losses can be disproportionately higher comparable to children in higher grades.
UNESCO noted that there is about a month remaining for nations whose academic calendar is split between 2 years to reopen while states that have an academic year calendar running for one year are currently reopening schools.
In the first case, decisions on education delivery policy depend on temporary measures that link the middle of the 2nd semester and the final of the school academic year, while in the 2nd case, new policies for the academic year ahead are formulated in accordance to the decisions
made before the beginning of the academic year.
These decisions include reduced curriculum implementation; online and distance education implementation; in-service teacher training implementation on a massive scale; and continual monitoring of performance and students participation.
Kenya had a total of 28,383 public pre-primary learning institutions by 2019. This is according to the KEBS (Kenya National Bureau of Statistics) data. The information on KEBS records reveals that in the same year, 18,147 private pre-primary institutions existed bringing a total of 46,430 pre-primary institutions in Kenya, both private and public schools.
In the same year, a total of 1,393,719 boys were enrolled in both pre-primary two (PP2) and pre-primary one (PP1), while 1,344,868 girls joined in PP2 and PP1.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has been urging Kenya to re-open learning institutions, warning of a serious future risk of more than 3,000,000 nursery school learners and other students.
Research shows that a significant number of learners across Africa are suffering from poor nutrition, exploitation, increased exposure to violence, stress, childhood pregnancies among others since the school closure.
Africa's Regional Director Dr Matshidiso Moeti observed that education paved the way for success for a significant number of African children as well as providing a safer environment for children in different challenging situations.
