This archive report was first published on 10 June 2020.
With the government's announcement to reopen learning institutions, Wilson Sossion, a Nominated MP and Secretary-General of Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut), highlights the importance of prioritizing safety protocols and support for students, teachers, and staff.
Published on June 10, 2020, Sossion's article emphasizes the need for a balance between the right to education and the right to life, considering public health, benefits, and risks for education, and other factors.
He suggests that institutions might reopen for some time and then close temporarily, depending on the local context, and that authorities must be flexible and ready to adapt to situations to ensure the safety of every child.
According to Sossion, an objective, inclusive, and comprehensive data-driven process is necessary to ascertain how institutions, students, academic staff, and local communities should cope with the new environment.
He emphasizes the importance of considering the best interest of learners and staff, overall public health considerations, and cross-sectional and context-specific evidence, including education, public health, and socio-economic factors.
Education authorities, in liaison with the Ministry of Health and other relevant government agencies, must ensure enhanced support and flexibility to teachers and lecturers, especially in remote areas or marginalized communities, to ensure that disadvantaged learners do not miss out on quality education.
Testing learners and staff for the virus will be necessary, with those found sick quarantined at home or at a health facility until full recovery.
The Health ministry should set up treatment facilities in institutions to handle arising cases and ensure that health services are readily available to learners and staff at all times.
With a gradual, progressive return to normality in the sector slated for September, the Education ministry should announce the academic calendar by mid-August and set up an inclusive, objective, and non-discriminatory framework for maintaining institutions and critical policies, procedures, and financing plans to improve learning or training with a focus on safe operations, including remote learning.
Practical measures to reduce congestion include staggering the start and close of the school day, staggering meal times, moving classes to temporary spaces or outdoors, and conducting classes in shifts.
Water and hygiene facilities will be critical to safe school reopening, and administrators should improve hygiene, including handwashing, respiratory etiquette, social distancing, cleaning, and safe food preparation practices.
Learners and staff should be trained on these measures, and parents and guardians need to create a supportive and nurturing environment and respond positively to questions and expressions of their feelings.
Mr. Sossion is a Nominated MP and Secretary-General of Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut).
