As schools reopen, it is incumbent upon the nation to reflect on what awaits us in the new term as Covid-19 rears its ugly head under new and unpredictable strains.
Questions linger on the safety of our children in light of the growing number of infection. Something needs to be done. Not because nothing is being done but because more must be done to address these safety concerns.
Despite criticism, it is a fact that both the national and county governments can do and are doing a lot already to boost the capacity of the country and the counties to provide more oxygen facilities, more and better-equipped isolation units, adequate personal protection equipment and enforcement of World Health Organization protocols.
Yet all these are not enough. This is where the individual comes in. Apart from observing the Covid-19 protocols, individuals can adopt schools, particularly their alma mater, against Covid-19.
Former learners can come together to support their alma maters with face masks, handwashing facilities, desks to promote social distancing or sessions to sensitise on basic hygiene.
Siaya county piloted this in the last term and registered great success. Major lessons were drawn that could be useful as schools reopen.
The development of a county level multi-sectoral adoption committee bringing together national and county government leadership is an important initial step to coordinate the adoption activities.
The committee should have a secretariat to help with the development of a database and monitoring of coordination. The next stage would then be to review the database of all schools in the county and their populations. These schools are further classified based on their vulnerabilities.
Data collection and analysis tools need to be then developed to help track the adopters and their contributions for purposes of acknowledging the work they are doing and providing them with the much-needed publicity.
Significantly, those in the county leadership should lead by example by being the first adopters of their former schools or vulnerable schools as identified and proposed by the County Adoption Committee. With all the above in place, it is then time to officially launch the adoption process at the subcounty or ward levels simultaneously.
On the same day or week, all first response adopters would troop back to their former schools with their support across the county. These launch events must be provided maximum publicity in social, electronic and print media to call attention to the start of the adoption activities.
The messaging across the board during these adoption events must be choreographed to emphasise patriotism as the driving force. Messages must also target alumni with possible lists of established alumni developed by the school for tracing purposes.
Beyond the drama and razzmatazz around the launch, subsequent adoption activities must then be given even more media coverage and limelight to encourage others to adopt. The management and coordination of the process must by this time have been devolved to the schools. Importantly, non-governmental institutions, corporates and other partners need to be brought on board to participate in the adoption.
Of course there will be the challenge of independent adopters not being easily traceable thereby making data follow-up a tedious task, but this can continuously be improved as adoption takes root.
Members of the public are also interested in the role the government is playing so far even as it spearheads appeals for individuals support.
Both the national and county governments need to continuously explain to the public what the real needs are, what bit they are taking care of and the gap they need help with against Covid-19 even while asking wananchi to adopt schools. Let’s adopt schools against Covid-19.
Governor, Siaya county
