Schools reopened fully in Kenya on Monday, for the first time in almost 10 months.
The Kenyan government closed schools across the country in March, after the East African country confirmed its first COVID-19 case. The government reopened schools for 4th, 8th and 12th grade students who were preparing for final exams. The rest – about 16 million students – are expected to return to classrooms on Monday.
The government asked school officials and teachers to implement public health measures, such as social detachment and hygiene guidelines, to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus.
Still, teachers expressed concern about the safety of their students and themselves in the midst of the pandemic. Wilson Sossion, secretary general of the Kenya National Teachers Union, told BBC Newsday that the level of preparedness for COVID-19 security measures before the reopening was “quite inadequate”.
“When you give these guidelines to schools and you don’t give them funding,” said Sossion, “how are they expected to be implemented?”
Kenya, a country of 51 million, has reported more than 96,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, including at least 1,685 deaths, according to the latest data from the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.