Orange Democratic Movement party leader Raila Odinga has waded into the ongoing debate concerning the possibility of reopening schools by June.
The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has hugely hampered the operations in the country and the entire world and disrupted learning nationally.
In an interview with one of the local radio station on Tuesday, Raila said that the country should not rush to reopen schools at this time.
He said that the health of the children should be given the priority and that their upcoming final year examinations can be rescheduled.
“Hakuna haraka. Hata kama tumepoteza mwaka mmoja kusomesha watoto, afadhali tuupoteza lakini watoto wako hai kuliko kuharakisha eti waende kwa sababu wanaenda kufanya mtihani. Mtihani ni nini? Wanaeza kufanya mwaka huu na wakikosa wanaezafanya mwaka mwingine (There is no rush to reopen schools. Even if we’ve lost time, students should not resume classes just to do exams, their lives are much more important than exams which can wait even to the next year)” Raila said.
He added that the ongoing e-learning programs should not be reflected in the national exams because some of the children cannot access them.
His comments come amid plans to reopen schools in June by the Ministry of Education.
Education CS George Magoha formed a task force led by Ms Sarah Ruto to receive views from the public regarding the reopening of schools.
The CS had earlier said that schools will resume learning after the pandemic has been controlled.
All the learning institutions in the country were closed in March following the order given by President Uhuru Kenyatta to curb further spread of the virus.
Schools are however expected to reopen on June but the program could be altered by the surging cases of the virus.
The country recorded 72 new cases on Monday, which was among the highest recorded in Kenya.
The cases came from 2,711 samples tested in the last 24 hours. This brought the total number of infections to 1,286 across the country.
The government had tested 61,971 people by Monday for the virus.
Since the first case on March 13, 52 people have succumbed to the virus while 402 have recovered.