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Publishers have assured that Grade Five books will be in schools by April, in good time for its roll out in July.

Kenya Publishers Association (KPA) Chairman, Lawrence Njagi said the government communicated the school calendar in good time and printing will not be hurried.

He said all the Grade Five books are ready and have passed through Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) evaluation process and are ready for printing.

 “We were waiting for the government to communicate and since they have already done that, we will not rush to print, a thorough job will be done. The Grade  Five books are ready to be printed,” said Njagi.

Expectations are that the books will be ready in January and in schools by April so that when learners transit in July, the books will be ahead of them.

He said publishers have had ample time to make necessary corrections, if any, and the end users will be well prepared to receive the new content for Grade  Five.

“We have a chance to make corrections but most importantly the end user – in this case being schools – will be prepared to receive the content.

He also said early printing will give parents with children in private schools, enough time to organise their finances.

 Similarly, he said printing books in good time will give the Ministry of Education, publishers and parents, a chance to ensure books are systematically delivered to schools.

Njagi said the printing industry, just like any other, has been significantly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic since the school calendar could not run as usual.

“Covid-19 has affected everyone. Once the school calendar is affected, the publishing industry is also affected since 95 per cent of publishing is schoolbooks.

The minute schools closed, our clients are at home not using or buying the books,” said Njagi.

He said most publishing companies have had to downsize and that only a few publications have been made at this time, including novels and storybooks, thus the capacity to proceed on as publishers has greatly been reduced.

“Just like any other sector, we will wake up but only for the serious publishers, people who have invested in publishing and capital.

We do risk analysis but the pandemic caught us flat footed in terms of how best to cope. Once schools open we will be back to normal,” he stated.