Social distancing remains a major challenge for leaners in Kilifi county, even as some head teachers turned to tree sheds and tents to meet the Ministry of Health guidelines.
Mtomondoni primary school in Mtwapa, Kilifi south sub county with an enrolment of 2379 pupils has created five makeshift classes under trees in the compound but congestion still persists in the few available classrooms and the 1.5 metre distance cannot be attained.
In some of the classes, three pupils were being forced to share a desk thus contravening the Covid-19 protocols.
The school head teacher Edward Mwaboza told the county monitoring team for schools reopening Thursday that he was considering soliciting for more tents from well-wishers so that additional learning spaces can be created.
“My school has received enough reusable face masks from people of goodwill but efforts to utilize the available tree sheds has not met our target as the school has only 28 classrooms while an equivalent number is required to meet social distancing. We have also received 140 desks from the national government which are only enough for the class 8 candidates,” he said.
At K.P senior secondary school also in Kilifi south sub county, acting Principal Janet Wakesho said there were no tree sheds to serve as alternative classes for their current student population of 700.
Wakesho said the administration has been consulting with donors to assist in creating more classes to in line with the laid down health protocols.
“We have 15 classrooms which can only accommodate 40 students each, against the new requirement of 20 per class to meet social distance. We have made our supporters aware of this,” she said.
By Harrison Yeri
