Stick to old programme, teachers say

By PATRICK MUTHURI

More than 4,000 teachers in Meru have asked the Education ministry to stick to the current academic term calendar.

Kenya National Union of Teachers Meru Branch Executive Secretary Caxton Miungi said the proposed calendar would be tiresome to children.

"This new system will lead to poor performance because of overburdening of pupils. Many pupils will have forgotten what they studied the previous year after a three month December holiday," argued Miungi.

He said teachers pursuing higher education may be forced to cut short their studies, which are scheduled according to the current calendar. Miungi further said it is wrong for Education Minister Prof Sam Ongeri to bar children from repeating after the national exams because the move may result in depression when pupils fail to attain the expected grades.

He called on teachers to allow pupils to repeat after consulting parents, noting that many prominent people had repeated in order to qualify. "Those who completely fail should go ahead and repeat to get good certificates," he said.