Reopening Kenyan schools under the cloud of coronavirus disease will require a huge budget to be effective, a veteran teacher has told A Plain.
Classes that carry the standard 45 students will have to hold a maximum 15 in line with the social distance safety net.
Day students whose interaction outside the school is uncontrollable ought to be tested for the virus daily or be turned into boarders temporarily until the virus is contained.
Most, important, the students ought to be psychologically prepared to learn.
You get mental fitness upside down and the physical facilities like the expected 250,000 new school desks would make little impact.
”Some of our students, especially girls, fear a lot, including a lizard dropping from the roofing,” the teacher said. “The students have to feel safe because learning is in the mind,” the teacher said, adding that “when the mind accepts, you pass exams, when it doesn’t, you fail.”
Since the task force was formed to look into possibilities of reopening schools, debate has revolved around keeping distance because of the population of learners running into thousands.
Wilson Sossion, the secretary general of the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut), has said the union will not accept the recommendations of the task force headed by Sara Ruto, the chairman of the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD). Knut is not a member of the task force.
Said Mr Sossion: “Let’s not experiment with children. I don’t think this is a matter we can engage in careless; it is a health issue.”
The indefatigable unionist, who is also a nominated MP, said safety of teachers, learners and other workers in schools ought to determine reopening.
Mr Sossion has said fidgeting about when the national examinations would be done is missing the safety point, sensationally saying that KCSE and KCPE exams “are not a ticket to heaven”.
Back to the question of mental fitness that, unfortunately, has been given a wide berth by stakeholders, and we feel should worry the ministry most.Teaching and learning is about tete-a-tete, if we may. Teachers have to be close to learners and the students must be free to approach the tutor with questions.
According to the teacher who spoke with us, teachers “have a big role to play in the life of a learner. They create a challenging environment for the learner by motivating, appreciating every little effort made.”
Indeed, the tutor of about 20 years experience said “teachers should make friends with the learner, who will feel loved and start working hard.”
It, therefore, means that the two parties ought to be as free as possible for the exchange to deliver the much needed fruit, including learning and passing examinations.
However, this will be difficult, especially with the day students who “interact extensively” after school, the teacher said. “Of course, you cannot control teachers, but they also have to be responsible.”
According to the teacher, schools may reopen and people may report back, but learning will be bumpy and questionable.
If standard classroom sizes are split into three, this will mean that more teachers will be required and temporary dormitories built to hold the day students until the situation normalises.
Others propose learning in shifts of morning and evening while some want students to join schools close to where they are currently instead of travelling in efforts to reduce the spread of the virus.
Because some of the symptoms of coronavirus mirror those of other diseases like malaria — for example having fever — it will be a cycle of spectacles when, for example, girls “who are prone to falling sick” show some symptoms that can be confused with signs of Covid-19.
