NAIROBI, Kenya, Apr 10 – The Ministry of Education has directed County Directors of Education to work closely with County Commissioners to ensure Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examination candiates are facilitated to travel in and out the 5 counties that are under lockdown once they finish their national examinations next week.
In a circular, Education Principal Secretary Julius Jwan said County Education Directors and School Principals should organize with transport companies to have students picked from schools.
Further they are required to ensure that students travel in school uniforms and are issued with an introductionory letter from their respective schools.
School principals are also expected to communicate to the parents concerning the transport arrangements in advance.
“You are required to work with County Commissioners and principals of secondary schools to ensure that the candidates are facilitated to travel,” Jwan said in a letter to County Directors of Education.
752, 981 candidates kicked off KCSE examinations on March 8 and will complete on April 21.
On March 26, Kenya imposed a lockdown in the capital Nairobi and four other counties in measures to contain the rising infections of COVID-19.
President Uhuru Kenyatta said the counties of Nairobi, Machakos, Kiambu, Kajiado and Nakuru are COVID-19 infected regions which require tough restrictions after the third wave swept the country with unprecedented infections and deaths since February.
“That fully conscious that 70% of Kenya’s reported cases of COVID-19 have been recorded in the Counties of Nairobi, Kajiado, Machakos, Kiambu and Nakuru, those Counties are individually and collectively declared a disease infected area,” Kenyatta declared.
Effectively, he said, “there shall be a cessation of movement into and out of the five counties until further notice.”
He also ordered closure of all learning institutions and only candidates who were sitting for their examinations were allowed to remain in schools.