NAIROBI, Kenya May 20 – The Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) has proposed for the partial re-opening of schools by June 15, even as the government warned that the coronavirus pandemic is worsening by the day in the country.
In a raft of proposals submitted before the National Education Emergency Response Committee on Wednesday, the Union’s Deputy Secretary-General Moses Nthurima said that the final year students at universities and colleges should also be allowed back to classrooms.
He stressed that the re-opening of schools should be done subject to guidance by the Ministry of Health.
Kenya’s COVID-19 cases hit 1,029 Wednesday with 50 fatalities.
“The MoH should assess how best the COVID-19 containment measures can be applied in schools for Form Four and Standard Eight students for at least one month and determine their efficacy. After one month, the government could admit students at Form Three in secondary schools and Classes Six and Seven at primary level,” he said.
The government has insisted that this year’s national examinations will proceed as scheduled.
Nthurima said that the government has sufficient time to enact and publish guidelines for the partial re-opening of the learning institutions, insisting that the Ministry of Education can learn how countries like Japan, Denmark, Germany and China are managing the situation after they re-opened their schools.
Prior to opening of the institutions, the union stressed that all schools that served as quarantine centers for COVID-19 patients should be fully fumigated and their facilities sterilized to the satisfaction of Public Health and WHO standards, school management, parents and community stakeholders.
He spoke even as reports indicated that there has been an upsurge of cases in european countries where governments decided to re-open schools before flattening the COVID-19 curve.
