Colleges & universities to remain closed till 2021 - Education CS George Magoha

Colleges & universities to remain closed till 2021 - CS Magoha

Tony Mukere

July 30, 2020 10:37 AM

Announcement comes amid surge in Covid19 numbers

Education CS Prof George Magoha

Education CS Prof George Magoha on Thursday announced that colleges and universities will remain closed till January 2021.

Magoha said the institutions of higher education are not well prepared to handle the safety guidelines needed to curb spread of Covid19.

"In compliance with the directive made by President Uhuru Kenyatta, the Ministry of Education has today met with all stakeholders to deliberate on the current preparedness for phased reopening of Teacher Training Colleges, TVET and Universities as earlier intended starting from September 1st, 2020."

"Today’s meeting was held on the understanding that the decision to reopen all basic education learning institutions in January 2020 is upheld as agreed at an earlier meeting of education stakeholders held here on July 7th 2020," Magoha said.

The Education CS had initially indicated that the colleges and universities were likely to resume in September under the Covid19 safety guidelines.

He, however, noted that the Covid19 situation has worsened with some of the institutions losing their staff to the deadly virus.

"The current situation regarding the COVID-19 situation has kept worsening, with an average number of new positive cases daily averaging 600 in the last one week. As of yesterday, the number of reported positive cases stood at 19,125, some of them affecting staff of universities and colleges. The University of Nairobi has already lost four members of staff as a result of COVID-19," the CS said in a press statement.

The CS added the government had set aside funds to pay salaries to teachers employed by the Board of Governance as well as security staff and other utilities.

Tony Mukere