Our schools will never, ever be Covid-19 compliant!

By MUNGAI KIHANYA

The Sunday Nation

Nairobi,

06 September 2020

Will our schools be Covid-19 compliant by January 2021? The quick answer is no. There are two major requirements: the first one is to maintain 1.5m between pupils in classrooms and, second, washing hands before entering the school premises.

A typical public school hosts about 50 pupils per classroom. The room measures 7m wide by 8m long. The desks are arranged in 7 columns running from the back to the front and each column has 7 or 8 desks.

If the desks are arranged maintaining a separation of 1.5m, the typical classroom will fit only four rows and four columns. This makes a total of 16 pupils in the classroom. Thus, to accommodate all the 50 children who previously learned in one room, the school will need to add another two rooms.

Now, my children’s primary school has four streams running from pre-primary to standard 8. That, is 36 classrooms, each with 50 pupils to make a total of 1,900 children. To be Covid-19 compliant, this school needs a total of 119 rooms. It has 36, so 83 new ones have to be built in the next four months.

Even if temporary structures (say, tents) are installed to meet this requirement, the additional “rooms” will need additional teachers. The school currently has 60 tutors, so it will need 120 more! Can this be attained by January 2020?

What about handwashing? Each pupil will need about half a litre of water wash properly – in the manner prescribed by health authorities. With 1,900 pupils, the school requires 950L each day.

Now, all the 1,900 children enter the school within a 30-minute period in the morning (from 6.30am to 7am). Covid-19 protocols require people to wash hands for two minutes. So, in 30min, one tap will serve 15 pupils. You might argue that the process can be speeded up by have some using the tap while others are rubbing hands with soap. But remember, these are 1,900 children aged from 6 years to 13…

Therefore, in order to wash all the pupils within 30 minutes, the school will need to install about 120 handwashing points. Otherwise, they will be late for classes as they wait for their turn to wash.

From these results, I don’t think Kenyan public schools will ever be Covid-19 compliant! So perhaps the government strategy should change: instead of trying to make schools ready, it should figure out how deal with the consequences of re-opening.