The increased reported cases of the Covid-19 pandemic has now sent jitters among education stakeholders, most of them fearing for the future of the education system. – By Ramadhan Kambi.
The country has of late continued to record surging cases of the pandemic a move that has sent worried signals to the stakeholders.
The government on the other hand has already announced that the fourth wave of the Pandemic could be worse than previous waves.
According to Tawheed Academy Director Amir Ahmed, owns a school in Malindi sub county, Kilifi county, there is a lot of uncertainty following the reports of increased cases of coronavirus and fear the education sector could be once again be suspended like what happened when the pandemic hit the country.
Speaking to journalists at the school located in Maziwani are in the outskirts of Malindi he said they are worried because they do not know the future of learning institutions.
“Our greatest fear is that learning may be suspended, already the academic year is not going the normal way, for example July 26 is supposed to be January where form ones are joining secondary. There is total confusion at the moment,” he said.
Low Enrollment
Mr Ahmed said the circumstances have led to low enrolment rate following the effects of the Covid-19 Pandemic.
The Covid-19 pandemic has ggenerally had serious effects to the economy globally leading to massive job losses and financial constraints in many institutions.
Private schools were not left out and the situation is worse for new institutions which opened business during the era of the pandemic.,” he said in an interview.
The institution begun operations in May this year and has a capacity of accommodating over 400 students from one to four yet it has only registered 58 students.
Mr Ahmed said some of the parents have not brought children to school because they lost their jobs and cannot afford to pay fees.
“I want to urge parents to not fear taking their children to school because of lack of fees because that is the same as denying them rights to education,” he said.
Lack of Funds
He said at his learning institution no one is chased because of failure to pay fees as their mission is to ensure they perform well and become good citizens in the country.
“We first ensure that there is academic excellence which is performance so that students perform well and have good discipline,’ he said.
Ahmed said at the institution they have ensure high standards of preparedness for covid 19 prevention including providing hand washing facilities, thermoguns and social distance.
School principal Neima Hashim said the school enrolment has also gone down and for the it was worse because the institution is new.
“We expected to have a big number of students but the current number is not satisfactory so the pandemic has affected us a lot on that side,” he said.
Job Ogoti the Deputy principal said they have been following the Ministry of health guidelines including washing hands, checking temperatures, wearing masks for all students.
