Is it safe for children to go back to school? Schools should only be reopened when it is safe for students. The government having a plan to gradually reopen the schools by 1st September 2020, has made tremendous steps in preparation of the same. Contracting RIVATEX to make 24 million masks for students and teachers is a step to appreciate. However, there is more to be done.
The social distancing being the greatest challenge. Many schools are not prepared for this. The schools administrators have now echoed on this. The schools have in adequate infrastructure and acute shortage of teachers. The advice from the ministry of health is that a class should have 15 to 20 students. The government have 24 million primary and secondary school students. What does this mean? 15 million students have to find for alternative learning facilities.
Cs George Magoha proposed the use of tents to schools with limited classrooms. The head teachers didn’t agree to the proposal, citing schools with small compounds with high population of learners. Instead they proposed for multi-shift learning. Where we have students who will attend classes in the morning and others in the afternoon.
Even if we go for multi-shift learning, we have the problem of shortage of teachers. Reducing classes will not work and will mean overworking of the existing teachers. The proposals are many but it seems none is working.The government should not rush to open schools until proper mechanisms of handling COVID 19 are put in place.