How to re-open schools in shifts

By MUNGAI KIHANYA

The Sunday Nation

Nairobi,

11 October 2020

Finally, the ministry of education has announced the partial reopening of schools, starting with grade 4, standard 8 and form 4 pupils. This is approximately a quarter of the total student population. It is a good number for maintaining the recommended social distance to protect against Covid-19.

Still, the question in everybody’s mind is: when will the rest of the children return to school and how? As I noted in this column last month, we would need to increase the number of classrooms by a factor of three to be able to accommodate all the pupils at the same time.

Obviously, we do not have the time or resources to do that. Therefore, we need to come up with alternative plans for full reopening. I propose that we implement a shift system where one half of the children attend school while the others take a break.

We achieve this by increasing the number of school terms from the current three to six per year. Then, the children in odd numbered classes (standard 1, 3, 5, 7, and forms 1 and 3) will go to school during the odd numbered terms (term 1, 3 and 5) while those in the even classes (std 2, 4, 6, 8 and forms 2 and 4) will go in the even terms (2, 4, 6).

For this to work, the length of the term will need to be reduced from the 12 weeks to 8. But, would there be enough time for teaching?

The standard school day in Kenya starts at 8am and ends at 3.30pm. Pupils attend 8 lessons of 35 minutes daily; that is, 40 lessons per week, or 1,320 per year (33 teaching weeks).

With the shortened school term, the number of lessons per year goes down to 840 (21 teaching weeks). This is 480 less than the normal duration.

This shortfall may be reduced by extending the daily teaching period from 3pm to 4.15 pm. Doing that will give us and extra two lessons per day to make 50 lessons per week (up from the previous 40).

The annual number of lessons now comes to 1,050. This is closer to the normal number (1,320) and I believe that, with careful time management, teachers can cover the content.

The remaining challenge is whether teachers will have the stamina to teach continuously for 48 weeks. Well, desperate times call for desperate measures!