Education ministry warns teachers against homework during holidays

The Education ministry has cautioned teachers against giving learners home work during the long holiday.

Schools closed last week for the November-December holidays and learners are set to open on January 2 for the 2019 calendar.

Director for Secondary Education Paul Kibet (pictured) yesterday said the ministry provides school holiday to enable students to relax and socialise, bond and mingle with the family and community they come from.

“That is why schools are advised against giving a lot of homework to learners when they go home for school holidays. Doing so extends the school to the home environment, which cuts off children from full interaction with the life,” Mr Kibet said.

He said such programmes and activities while at home contain valuable educational lessons and insights for the children.

He added that parents should be available for guidance and be mentors, modelers, coaches and inspirers to their children.

“A school calendar runs for nine months in one year although interposed with April and August holidays. December holiday provides room for children to unwind or relax as the learning, though a joyous experience, requires energy,” Kibet said.

The director said the holiday is not an interruption of the holistic education that policy, standards and curricular envision.

“The community provides a platform where the education of the children continues. The knowledge, skills, values and attitudes they imbibe from the family and community feed into the education they get formally in school,” he said.

Kibet said formal education does not disable or make ineffective informal education which children used to get before the introduction of formal education by colonial Government.

“The children should as much as possible engage in community service typical to the localities they live in,” he said.

He said the ministry has attached greater importance to the interaction of the learners, adding that students in primary and secondary schools will have some days away from their schools during the half-term break.

He said the 2017 first term will run for 14 weeks and learners will break for half-term from February 18-24 before closing on April 5.

Schools open for second term on April 29 and close on August 2 with a half-term break beginning from June 17-23.

Learners will open for third term on August 26 and close on October 25 before candidates sit for the 2019 Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) exams from October 28 to November 2.

The 2019 Kenya Certificate for Secondary Education (KCSE) exams will be held from November 4-29.