Education CS Magoha’s painful but necessary action
By Editorial, July 8, 2020
After three-and-a-half months of national anxiety, Education Cabinet Secretary Prof George Magoha finally stepped up to the plate yesterday to outline a raft of measures necessary for the crucial sector’s continuity amidst the coronavirus.
In his pronouncements to the nation, the minister declared 2020 a lost year insofar as learning in primary and secondary schools is concerned, and rolled out timelines to be followed in the countdown to re-opening classrooms.
Magoha announced that the schooling calendar would resume next year and that, most importantly, there shall be no examinations this year for Class Eight and Form Four candidates.
That is a very painful but necessary decision which the country must live with. Painful because it delays the hopes and dreams of millions of young people to move to the next level of learning.
Also, the move has a negative economic impact on parents who had already budgeted for their children’s education, with some having paid substantial amounts of money towards this year’s learning.
The situation is compounded by the prevailing tough economic conditions with no indications that the situation will change for the better soon.
What is more, some of the parents have lost their jobs and other means of livelihoods as a result of the coronavirus which is insatiably gnawing at their pockets.
Whichever way you look at it, this is perhaps the strongest test for parenting.
What Magoha’s announcements simply mean is that parents will have to stay with their children at home for the next seven months without a break.
That is to say guardians will have to devise new meaningful ways to keep their children occupied as they also ensure their safety and well-being.
Indeed, another half year of parent-child companionship in the house is not easy.
But it is a very engaging ‘new normal’ that has to be confronted and hopefully enjoyed, bearing in mind that the world outside school is tempting to young minds.
Parents must go the extra mile and put their best foot forward to ensure the youngsters are not lured into the negative life out there, considering that already vices such as teenage pregnancies are alarmingly on the rise, while pornography and other destructive social-media interactions are in abundance.
Lastly, it is important to understand that Magoha’s action, however painful, was necessary because it was the only way to ensure the safety of our children