Make schools habitable ahead of reopening, Magoha directs teachers

Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha has directed teachers to prepare and make schools habitable for learning ahead of their reopening.

He said the government will soon open schools and it was important for children not to find them in a deplorable state.

The government through President Uhuru Kenyatta closed all schools after the outbreak of Covid-19 in March.

Since then, schools have grown grass and turned bushy while some have dilapidated infrastructure.

“Let teachers do everything possible to make schools have a good atmosphere for learning. Children will resume learning as soon as possible,” Magoha said.

The CS spoke on Friday at Mawego Technical Training Institute in Karachuonyo where he was accompanied by Homa Bay Governor Cyprian Awiti, Vocational and Technical Training PS Julius Juan and deputy Governor Hamilton Orata.

He said they are meeting with education stakeholders on Monday next week before the government announces the new reopening date.

Magoha said they are monitoring the curve for Covid-19 and will reopen schools once it has flattened.

 “We’re going to receive a report from our technical team on the state of schools regarding Covid-19 prevention. The meeting will deliberate on the school reopening,” he added.

The CS who was supervising the economic stimulus project for making desks and said they will open schools in phases.

He said the reopening of schools will begin with national examination classes before it is cascaded to other classes at different levels.

“We’ll start with examination classes. We want the desks project completed before the end of October so that the remaining groups of children come to school find where to sit when they come to school,” Magoha said.

He argued that the Ministry had visited many Technical Training Institutes (TTI) and found that they had complied with safety standards on prevention of coronavirus.

The CS warned that his ministry will not tolerate TTI principals who had failed to transform.

“Mawego TTI has met the entire safety requirements. But there are others which have not. We have started a process of removing principals who cannot transform the institutes,” he said.

The CS told people who are going to undertake the desks project to work with diligence and transparency.

“Let anybody given work by the government do a good job and accountably,” the CS said.