Africa-Press – Uganda. The planned reopening of schools in January 2021 will test every stakeholder’s nerve. Without exception, our learners, teachers, and parents have all been off school activities for nearly two years. This implies that to cope will require all of them pulling together for a common goal, namely to make learning effective.
This is why the story that ‘Students, parents team up to fight Covid-19 in schools’ is great news. See Daily Monitor, December 14).
This community-led initiative is laudable and shows the kind of buy-in that has been largely lacking and had previously accounted for the big hesitancy in the country’s immunization drive against Covid-19. But this self-help push now provides a timely boost to the government’s drive to have the students return to school and operate in safe school environments.
Just as the students, parents and the Church have taken it upon themselves to help enforce the standard operating procedures (SOPs) as the schools ready to open in January, similar efforts can be undertaken by our grassroots local council leadership, and health training institutions in collaboration with area cultural and religious leaders.
In this particular case, the umbrella Uganda National Students Association (UNSA) has set about to mobilize more than 2000 volunteer medics and para-medics, who are not yet employed to help the Ministry of Health conduct on-site rapid testing or screenings. They also envisage the team to test on site the students reporting back and manage mild cases. The Mothers Union, on the other hand, would help secure volunteer midwives and counsellors to handle the young girls who could have become pregnant but need not be left behind when the schools open.
The fathers Union would also help to raise the much needed funds to support the drive, put in place the requite facilities for SOPs to minimize the spread of Covid-19.
The planned impromptu visits would keep the schools authorities on their guard, enforce compliance in schools and ensure the students are observing SOPS, or mild cases are managed within schools.
As rightly observed, when we all do as inspired by this team, even in the face another Covid-19 wave, we can likely beat Covid-19. In this way, everyone would help compliment government efforts and collectively ensure that Covid-19 is contained so that government does not close the schools again.
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