A parent who was provided with cash demanded to pay the school’s school fees with bags of rice that she grew, which led principal Mike Ssekaggo to request a test before approving. Eventually he did.
Many other parents in African countries, who cannot pay in cash or kindly, say that their children will have to miss the new semester when lessons resume after months of delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ssekaggo, principal of Wampeewo Ntakke Secondary School on the outskirts of Uganda’s capital Kampala, has lodged complaints from parents who are climbing to get their children enrolled for the first time since March.
Relief over the gradual reopening of schools is matched by anxiety over the financial burden caused by the pandemic and over how to protect students in often cramped classrooms from coronavirus.
Only about half of the 430 students had reported the day after he began receiving students for the new semester, Ssekaggo told the Associated Press.
School officials are concerned that some children may not return to class because their parents have not worked, Ssekaggo said.
In Uganda, authorities have set standards that schools must meet before they can receive students, most of whom can stay home until as late as next year. Schools must have enough hand washing stations and enough space in classrooms and dormitories for social distancing.
Although the pandemic has disrupted education around the world, the crisis is more acute in Africa, where up to 80% of students do not have access to the internet and distance education is out of reach for many.
Sub-Saharan Africa already had the highest proportion of out-of-school children anywhere in the world, with almost a fifth of children between the ages of 6 and 11 and more than a third of young people between the ages of 12 and 14 not attending school, according to UN and training agency.
Although schools have now reopened in many African countries that have introduced lockdowns against COVID-19, the full impact of the pandemic on education remains on the world’s most youthful continent with over 1.3 billion people.
In some cases, the decision to reopen remains problematic, especially as the test level remains low.
“One of the things we have discussed is how we monitor the situation in schools where we have a large number of students,” says Dr. Rashid Aman, Kenya’s Administrative Secretary for Health. “I definitely think we will need to do a certain level of testing in these populations to see if there is transmission of asymptomatic cases.”
As in Uganda, Kenya is gradually reopening schools. Students graduating to move to high school, high school and college reported in October. The rest will return in January, but there is great concern that schools opened too early as some have reported outbreaks.
Similar challenges are reported in Zimbabwe, the cash-strapped South African nation where more than 100,000 public teachers have been beaten since schools reopened, demanding better pay and protective equipment.
“The aftermath of the disaster involving unsupervised school children will be with us for a long time,” said Raymond Majongwe, general secretary of the Progressive Teachers Union in Zimbabwe, warning parents not to send their children to school while teachers go on strike. “Prepare for a baby and drug boom,” he added.
The corona virus had infected more than 1.9 million Africans and killed more than 45,000 as of November 9. But up to 80% of Africa’s virus cases are thought to be asymptomatic, the World Health Organization’s Africa director said in September, citing preliminary analysis.
Authorities in Uganda and Kenya do not test students for the virus before registering. John Nkengasong, head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told reporters on Thursday that although his group does not monitor schools, “we naturally expect infections.”
At Uganda’s Wampeewo Ntakke Secondary School, which had 1,800 students before the outbreak, officials at the gates took the temperature of arriving students, who also had to bring at least two masks. Later, a nurse informed them of safety.
“I think we are safe now,” said student Sylvia Namuyomba, thinking about the hand washing stations strategically placed over the green lawns.
A teacher with a stern appearance who had face protection patrolled the association and reprimanded students who even removed their masks temporarily.
In a classroom, the masked students sat one per desk instead of the usual three, a measure of social distancing that will be difficult to maintain when hundreds more report back to school early next year.
“We just leave it in prayer that there will be no COVID in January,” said Vincent Odoi, a business administration teacher. “Otherwise we can not.”
