As the government prepares to receive vaccines against COVID-19 from Tuesday, a teachers’ union has said special needs education teachers should be treated as frontline workers and receive the jab first.
Kenya Union of Special Needs Education Teachers (KUSNET) Secretary General James Torome said the state should consider them as part of the priority group in the vaccination programme because of the nature of their work.
Speaking to the Star on phone, Torome said that vaccinating teachers is a critical step in the fight against the virus and will put the education sector back on track after its closure last year.
“As the situation now, the government should know we are handling students with physical challenges and are among special groups who require special attention. We need to ensure these learners are safe in their classrooms, it is only fair if our teachers are classed as key workers,” said Torome.
He said that if the state will take action, it will minimize the disruption of learning in special schools and provide a safe environment to all learners.
“We feel that special needs education teachers should be included in the frontline workers and have access to vaccination as soon as possible to avoid a surge of the virus in schools,” said the unionist.
Last week, Health CS Mutahi Kagwe said the COVID-19 vaccine will arrive in the country from Tuesday this week.
He said they expected to receive 1.02 million doses of Oxford-Astrazeneca vaccine and first priority will be given to health care workers across the country.
This is the first batch of the 4.1 million expected doses expected. Ultimately Kenya will import 24 million doses.
The vaccine will arrive in Kenya through the Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access (Covax) facility.
On December 15, UNICEF called for teachers around the world to be prioritized to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, once the frontline health personnel and high-risk populations are vaccinated.
UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore said the move will help protect teachers from the virus, allow them to teach in person and ultimately keep schools open.
