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Garrisa parents want schools reopening plans shelved until next year

 

A section of parents from Garissa now want the Ministry of Education to shelf all plans to re-open schools this year because the country has not been declared Corona virus free.

Mohamed Yussuf said that parents could not risk the health of their children by taking them back to school because of a few 'greedy business minded private school owners' whom he claimed were pushing Education CS Prof George Maghoa to re-open schools.

"We are not ready to gamble with the lives of our children because of a few greedy private school owners who want to salvage their business empires in total disregard of the health of our children. We shall challenge in court any attempt to reopen schools anytime this year," Yussuf said.

Yussuf hailed President Uhuru Kenyatta's speech on Monday where he was of the view that it was not worth the risk to reopen the schools.

“I really don’t think that our schools especially the public can implement the required steps to enforce health protocols,” he noted.

One her part, Fatuma Hussein said that Kenya should learn from countries that rushed into re-opening their schools only to shut them down after a second wave spike.

“What this hurry by Maghoa and his team. Parents and other stakeholders should have a say on when schools should be reopened. After all, the Ministry of Health has not okayed the same,” Fatuma said.

A task force on response to Covid-19 had proposed re-opening in October but the Education Ministry had acknowledged that social distancing would be a major challenge.

On Tuesday however Education CS George Magoha told a Parliamentary Committee that ‘it is time to reopen all schools in the country’ and that they were prioritizing students in class 8 and Form 4 in the second phase of schools reopening to be announced soon.

Without giving express reopening dates, the CS however said it was time the country opened its schools citing examples of neighbouring countries which have allowed their students back after the pandemic.

He cited the cases of Zambia and Angola which he noted have their children in school after emerging from the pandemic adding that the Covid-19 situation ‘may not change in the near future’.

Magoha noted that the social distance would be a tall order but expressed confidence that with employment of other mitigation factors like facemasks and handwashing, the students could be kept safe in schools.

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