Re-opened Kediretswe primary heaves under serious challenges
Koketso Kgoboge | Friday June 5, 2020 17:32
All local schools were closed down nearly two months ago when the debilitating effects of the COVID-19 hit the country’s shores.
On Tuesday, the schools re-opened after the Ministry of Basic Education had made attempts to prepare facilities to meet basic health protocols.
The outspoken chairperson of the Parents Teachers Association (PTA) at Kediretswe Primary School, Julia Moalosi said preparations were not sufficient. She also said their experiences in the morning of the first day at school proved they were far from ready.
For instance, It took two hours for 130 Standard 7 pupils to be registered and had their temperatures checked before starting classes. Further, though the school is supposed to resume business at 7:30am but it started around 9:30am.
Only one out the six thermometers at the school was functional. Six members of the teaching staff that are members of the school’s COVID-19 committee had volunteered to help the Safety Health and Environmental (SHE) officer to handle registration and temperature checks at the gate.
Before the teachers and SHE officer arrived, at the time of starting work at 7am, some students had already gained access into the school. They had to be pulled back from the classrooms to the entrance to observe the set protocols of washing hands and checking temperatures.
A feeding trough of about four metres in length, connected with four taps of cold water is erected inside the school near the main entrance as a point where the 1, 050 pupils at Kediretswe would wash their hands.
Five-litre bottles of hand washing soaps are hung on makeshift wooden frames at the gate and in strategic points in front of some classrooms.
A staffroom that was earlier turned into a Standard 2 classroom at the expense of the teachers using their vehicles as offices, has been converted further into a sickbay.
The school has 22 classrooms in total that were previously overwhelmed with about 43 to 45 pupils in each class. The 130 Standard 7s are divided into six classes of between 21 and 23 pupils respectively as a way of observing social distancing. “Our teachers have volunteered to help the pupils push the syllabus while other lower classes are yet to return. We are going to experience a problem when they are here and all teachers have to get back to their classes,” the PTA chairperson said.
Kediretswe has been amongst top achieving schools in Palapye in the last decade. Moalosi fears that lack of proper preparations amidst the coronavirus crisis may negatively affect their usual good performance.
“Obviously when others return we will have to resort to shifting basis where a teacher would have to take one class in the morning and another in the afternoon. There is going to be contact challenges and it means no remedial classes,” she said, noting that had been the secret ingredient to the school’s past successes.
She also bemoaned shortages of classrooms and furniture. She said with the assistance of the area councillor, Thabo Seomile they had managed to convert two storerooms into classrooms but still, they were not enough.
“The school is doing well and the least that could be done is to help with at least a few caravans if the ministry can’t build classrooms to provide enough space for these committed teachers before results decline.”
When quizzed about the level of preparedness, the school head Sam Malete referred this publication to the regional chief education officer.
“The chief education officer did the spot checks in the morning and she is better placed to talk about the state of the schools,” Malete briefly said.