Kakamega county shall be hosting this year’s Mashujaa day celebrations. This day has been set aside as a holiday to commemorate great Kenyans who sacrificed to liberate our country from tge chains of colonialism. The day was initially referred to, “Kenyatta Day” named after Kenya’s founding father; Mzee Jomo Kenyatta.
For Safaricom Subscribers, Safaricom promises to return all airtime spent on calls and bundles today. Safaricom says: “Wewe ni Shujaa Wetu! (You are our hero). As we celebrate you, all the airtime you use today will be given back to you tomorrow! Call and buy bundles with the free air time”.
Various luminaries and Corporations have had time to wish Kenyans a happy Mashujaa Day Celebrations. We sample some of these messages, below:
The Confederation of African Football, CAF, has written to confirm that two teams will qualify from Group F to next year’s Africa Cup Of Nations, AFCON, finals. There were concerns that group F may produce one team to AFCON finals after the ouster of Sierra Leone if the new host, most likely South Africa, fails to qualify. This was informed by the decision by CAF to strip Cameroon of rights to host next year’s AFCON finals, Cameroon has already qualified after playing the qualifiers.
“We take this opportunity to stress the fact that even though the group (F) is consisted of 3 teams, the 2 highest ranked teams of the group at the end of the qualifying phase shall qualify to the final tournament of the Total 2019 Cup of Nations,” reads a CAF memo by Anthony Baffoe, CAF Deputy General Secretary, dated 5th December- 2018.
There were reports that group F would produce only one team to AFCON finals if the new host fails to make it to the finals, after the qualifiers. This means whichever way the result of the final qualifier would be, pitting Ghana against Kenya, Kenya’s Harambee Stars will still qualify. Kenya plays Ghana, away, in the final qualifier match next year. The other team in Group F, Ethiopia, is automatically out of contention for the 2 slots since they only have one point and no match to play.
The Teachers Service Commission, TSC, has sent a message of appreciation to all teachers for their selfless services, rendered this year, ahead of the National examinations period. Through a presser by TSC Chief Executive Officer/ Secretary, Dr. Nancy Njeri Macharia, the TSC says “a big thank you to all the 312,000 teachers in primary and Secondary schools for their commitment and hard work throughout the year preparing the 1,725,345 KCPE (Kenya Certificate of Primary Education) and KCSE (Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education) examination candidates.”
This appreciation note comes after most schools having closed for the long December holidays, for form ones, twos and threes.
Dr. Macharia, also, has kind words for the Principals and head teachers who shall be centre managers during the KCPE and KCSE examinations. The commission thanks ‘the 30,184 principals and head teachers who will be centre managers to ensure smooth administration of KCPE and KCSE (Examinations).’ The TSC Secretary has in the same breadth thanked the 35,114 supervisors and 91,405 invigilators who will oversee administration and monitoring of the National examinations. This happens even as the TSC and KNUT lock horns over unresolved industrial matters affecting teachers like: stoppage to the Performance Appraisals, Suspending delocalization of teachers and promoting teachers on attainment of higher qualifications by the Commission. read more details here: TSC Cancels the much anticipated meeting with KNUT
“Finally, the commission wishes all the 1,725,345 candidates the best in the examinations and in their future endeavours,” Dr. Macharia concludes. As the December holiday beckons, most teachers will still be engaged in the administration and marking of the National examinations, whose results are expected before the end of the year, 2018.
The Teachers Service Commission has urged universities to encourage students to take up courses in under staffed subjects. Through a memo sent to all university deans in the School of Education, TSC says that the subjects lacking enough personnel include: Drawing & Design, Home Science, Art & Design, Agriculture, Physical Education, Music and Computer Studies. “These subjects are lacking the required number of teachers who will be able to adequately provide the correct curriculum based establishment in Secondary Schools,” says the memo dated 19th October 2018 and written by TSC’s Dr. Nthamburi Mugwuku for the Chief Executive Officer.
The said subjects attract the least numbers of candidates in KCSE and are ofTEN referred to as ‘the small subjects’ by the Kenya National Examinations Council, KNEC. Some graduates from Universities offering Education degrees with Information Technology, IT, like (Maseno University) have been rejected by the TSC for not taking Micro teaching and Teaching practice units in Computer studies.
The Commission now asks universities to come up with ways of churning out more teachers in the mention subjects. “The purpose of this letter is to kindly request your universities to put measures to train who can be able teach these subjects in order to address the gaps”, adds Dr. Nthamburi.
The Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) has promised to review all educational materials (mostly textbooks) in the country after a photo of a Grade two English book whose content was criticized as misleading caused uproar. Kenyans, online, criticized the new Competency Based Curriculum, CBC, textbook for providing misleading information to pupils and the public.
“We regret information that has been circulating in the social media regarding the content of some text books and other educational materials,” the KICD Director, Dr. Julius Jwan, said n a press statement on Saturday.
“We appreciate the feedback so far received from Kenyans and will intensify measures to guarantee quality.” Adds Jwan, who says that review of the CBC instructional materials has been ongoing for the last one week.
According to the statement, the KICD boss also urged booksellers and publishers to release only books that have received approvals from the KICD.
“School text books are approved after a careful evaluation and review by KICD officers, lecturers, quality assurance officers, teachers in primary and secondary schools, and tutors from teacher training colleges,” Jwan said in the statement.
The full implementation of the new CBC system is faced with hiccups few months ahead of the roll out date, January 2019. Grade four textbooks are yet to be published, among other challenges facing the implementation.
The Federation of International Football Association has released the current standings in the football ranking of countries. Last month, Belgium joined France in becoming the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking’s first-ever joint leaders. Now the Red Devils (Belgium) are in sole possession of top spot, albeit by the narrowest possible margin – 1733 Ranking points to Les Bleus’ (France) 1732.
The top two remain out in front after a month in which each of them enjoyed a win and a draw, with Belgium and France beating Switzerland (8th, unchanged) and Germany (14th, down two) respectively in the UEFA Nations League and emerging with honours even from matches against the Netherlands (15th, up 2) and Iceland (36th, unchanged).
The Dutch rose on the back of a fine 3-0 Nations League win over their struggling German rivals, and other sides also profited from their success in the same competition. England (5th, up 1), for example, swapped places with Uruguay (6th, down 1) after winning 3-2 away to Spain (9th, unchanged), while Norway (48th, up 4) moved into the top 50 after back-to-back victories and Russia (41st, up 5) maintained recent momentum by staying top of Group 2.
Gibraltar (190th, up 8), though, were undoubtedly October’s biggest Nations League success story, and their first-ever competitive wins against Armenia (101, down 1) and Lichtenstein (182, down 4) are reflected in a record Ranking position – and this month’s biggest rise.
The Gibraltarians are one of just six teams to have ascended more than five places, and the only team in Europe to have done so. The others all hail from Africa, where Egypt (58, up 6), Madagascar (100, up 6), Namibia (109, up 7), Zimbabwe (110, up 7) and Burundi (142, up 6) made significant gains on the back of strong results in CAF Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.
The next FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking will be published on 29 November 2018. (Courtesy of FIFA)
Cameroon is poised to host the Total African Cup of Nations from 15 June to 13 July 2019. under the new format, to be used next year, a total of 24 teams will participate at the most popular Continental show piece. The 24 teams shall be drawn from the 12 qualifying groups; with the best two teams booking tickets, from each of the 12 groups. Kenya is at the verge of qualification after about 14 years’ absence from the finals. Kenya tops group F with 7 points.
Hosts (Cameroon), Tunisia, Egypt, Senegal and Madagascar have already qualified to the AFCON finals ahead of the remaining group matches. Madagascar will be participating at the finals for the first ever time in their history after humbling Equatorial guinea 1-0 to clinch second spot in group A. The Cartage Eagles of Tunisia defeated Niger 2-1 in Niamey, Niger, to maintain their unbeaten run and wrap up a ticket to next year’s finals. The next round of group matches are slated for 16th, 17th 18th November, 2018 with the final group matches happening in March, 2019.
Check current group standings for the 2019 AFCON Qualifiers, below:
