Change Kenyas school year : Run the Year Sept to July , re-opening to be in January for term 2

I am being a vulnerable person (single parent) who was rendered jobless by being put on redundancy in an NGO during this Covid period. I also have a grade 4 child who reported to school this week in a private school. These grade four students who have been out of school for seven(7) months are also meant to sit for their initial national exams next week. I pen this petition with a lot of tears and emotions from my toilet because it’s the only place I can be to avoid the stares from my son who stares with fear of uncertainty. Honestly, I am staring at my life and want to quit it. This is because I’m among the millions of kenyans being forced to navigate very deep issues requiring precise answers in an uncertain and uncaring world .These issues are school fees (Its double of what it previously was), housing and food. Job search (unemployment is quite high though), school search (public schools are not opening up for the so called posh parents), financial plans without steady income etc
Kenyas Government style taken up in reopening up the economy and schools within this uncertain covid period is having serious unintended consequences to school going children. This is in return putting the middle income households into desperation as they try to navigate this unknown. Within this Covid period the service industry was deeply impacted with Millions losing jobs and businesses .Most of these people also had a car or mortgage or cash loans or two from a bank,SACCO or Digital lenders . Therefore, these millions are yet to recover and some may never recover.”Vitu kwa ground” are such that for example Uber,Bar ,saloon & barber shops owners were supported by formal sector workers considered posh in the service industries such as Airlines, Banks etc .Currently, these people considered posh/liquid are either on paycut or redundancy or completely ended for their employment contracts. Therefore, when the opening up style is not giving these persons a fair chance of taking time prior to demanding for them to pay certain bills, its retracting the gains Kenya has made to become a middle income country whereby a significant portion skilled workers of 30 to 45 years old are in gainfull monthly employment of over ksh 100,000.

The new normal/abnormal requires much change and adaptations and the Govt should lead by example by changing their mode of doing things.
1. School opening
Considering the current income within households there is no point in opening schools and having some private schools with 40% returned students in Grade 4 .Why is the Govt system costing education to the other 60% who mostly can’t make school fees hikes by these private schools? It’s a fact Govt schools can’t accommodate this 60% and therefore some drastic consideration is needed
In the opening of schools I’d recommend that the country swallows the bitter pill and change the School calender year to run Sept to July .This would allow Term 1 (Sept to Nov –Holiday December), Term 2(Jan to March Holiday in April ) Term 3 (May to July Holiday in August ).Id also recommend that the calender year change takes it that term 1 is already done and hence students go back to school in January 2021 to undertake term 2 .They can also be examined for their national exams in July 2021 .
Economically the losses from such a change would be for “School expenses “that need to be burnt by the ministries and donor organizations. Also, it would translate to every child having lost just a mere 7months of the education time. This is a loss that equalizes every child rather than the current choice that loses 60% of the private school students and deteriorates their quality of education.
This major change would also allow parents a time of five months (August to December)to recover in the new normal/abnormal economy .Such a timeline would allow almost 100% of these persons to make choices to return their children to a school system that they will afford. currently these job seekers are subjected to gambling with their little ones education as they are not certain of anything,
2. Taxation system for severance pay paid on redundancy
For the unfortunate cases of redundancy the Govt should consider forgiving the 30% tax burden levied on severance pay and leaving it at Zero. This is because these households are moving to the new uncertain normal/abnormal where every coin counts .I’m taking that the forgiving this burden backdated to April 2020 and running to December 2020 would help these households plan and make do with a better lumpsum .Employers also need to be made aware to act reasonable and pay such benefits on Gross pay which includes allowances