EDITORIAL: Term dates plan timely

The commitment by the Education ministry to review the length of school terms in the wake of the coronavirus restrictions signals hope for learners who have spent quite a long time at home, often without proper or any learning.

However, rather than just wait for the day all schools will re-open, the ministry can consider various scenarios, including partial re-opening for some classes, especially those with national examination candidates.

This way, the learners will get the benefit of resuming their studies while schools will get reprieve when parents start paying fees.

The current situation calls for a dynamic approach to problem-solving since the challenges that the ministry and schools face are unprecedented in Kenya.

As such, it is important for education officials to constantly monitor how other countries are grappling with similar challenges with a view of borrowing best-practices from the more successful ones.

It is important that children are not made to feel abandoned in the war against Covid-19 as this can have other unintended consequences, including an increase in delinquencies. However, it is also important to temper their hopes with realistic timelines and expectations.