Education Ministry Releases Key Dates For School Closing And Reopening

Parents scrolling through social media this week may have come across a worrying post, schools, it claimed, wouldn’t be reopening as planned. The Ministry of Education wants everyone to know that’s simply not true.

In a statement issued Wednesday, August 19, the State Department for Basic Education pushed back firmly against the circulating notice, making clear it didn’t come from any official source within the ministry. Term three, they confirmed, is proceeding exactly as scheduled, learners should be walking back into classrooms starting August 24.

“FAKE NEWS ALERT,” the department wrote bluntly in its clarification. “The post circulating on social media claiming that school opening has been postponed is FAKE. Parents, guardians, learners, teachers and the public are urged to ignore it. Term 3 begins on August 24 2026 as earlier communicated.”

The timing couldn’t have been worse for a hoax like this. With just days to go before term three kicks off, the false claim had real potential to throw households into disarray, parents second-guessing shopping lists, learners unsure whether to pack their bags, teachers left wondering about lesson plans.

At the center of the confusion was a fabricated claim that Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba had personally ordered a postponement, pushing the reopening date all the way to September 15 for senior schools and secondary institutions alike. No such directive exists, the ministry says, and it’s urging Kenyans to treat official government channels , not WhatsApp forwards or random social media posts, as the only reliable source for any changes to the school calendar.

Schools open August 24 and will run for nine weeks, closing October 23. From there, it’s straight into examination season. The Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA) opens the term’s exam period on October 26, wrapping up October 29. The same start date applies to the Kenya Intermediate Level Education Assessment (KILEA) and the Kenya Junior School Education Assessment (KJSEA), both part of the rollout under the competency-based curriculum.

A little further out, the Kenya Pre-Vocational Level Education Assessment (KPLEA) begins November 2, the same day Form Four candidates sit down for the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE), which runs through to November 20. Once that’s done, students can look forward to an eight-week break over December.

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