Sierra Leone News: Schools: To Open or Not to Open

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In this little village tucked far away in the so-called hard-to-reach areas in struggling Sierra Leone, there was a tiny tot just from the city, who wanted to corner an elder who has for some time sounded very wise to the little boy’s liking. What the little boy do? He held a tiny bird in his hands and asked the elder whether it is dead or alive. The elder smilingly looked at the boy and said, “My little man, the fate of that bird lies in your hand, if you squeeze it, it will die; and if you release it, it will fly to freedom.” I liken this scenario to our current Ebola situation in the country. Interestingly, now that the digits have gone single, the more people want deeper analysis like actually wanting to know the streets and communities from which the cases are coming. Look if we want the zeroes, then we should stop following the life-denying traditions. In fact who told you tradition is static? When I got married we were told we should not change our wedding clothes until after the reception. We had planned to wear something else. When my wife told friends they forbade her agreeing to it. I stood my ground and we changed into other set of beautiful clothes. You know what? When we entered the hall all the guests stood up and gave us a thunderous standing ovation! This is just the way of the world; someone has to start something different otherwise people will always stay trapped with what they have been doing for decades. So my dear compatriots let us accept that this Ebola is a formidable cultural game changer. If we accept this, all will be well and we will get to national zero cases of the Ebola. Otherwise it will continue to linger for some more weeks or even months! This brings me to the situation with the reopening of schools. The Ebola carnage has proven that there is no successful activity in the state that does not have the input of the community. Communities are no more passive onlookers of development or mere welfare seekers with stretched hands for handouts. They should be part of the conceptualizing, implementing and monitoring and evaluation stages of projects. We have clearly seen that laws and regulations alone cannot ensure a successful implementation. We had the State of Emergency declared around July or so. After that we had bye-laws done for chiefdoms all in a bid to contain Ebola. Some people have been jailed, others fined but yet some sections of the populace are still in denial and brazenly flouting the regulations some all in the name of tradition. Tell me if you wore the traditional vomi in your childhood are you still wearing them? Everybody in one way or the other should make sacrifices. As plans are on to open schools in the last week in March, let us approach the issue with very clear analysis of the situation. For once I would want us to behave like ants that are very small but because of unity they achieve whatever they want to achieve. Let us know that like the health system, the education situation is appalling to say the least. Almost half of the teachers we had were untrained and unqualified. The bulk of teachers especially in the remote areas were not on government pay roll. Even some of those trained and qualified were not easily absorbed some for years mainly because government could not pay them all. They had what they called replacement recruitment. We have the non-paid teachers referred to as community teachers. These communities give gifts in kind or whatever. In some cases the school children go to work for the teachers in lieu of salaries. You can imagine the child protection issues that arise in such circumstances. Like I keep saying Ebola did not come to tow our line, rather it goes contrary to everything we had stood for as a nation. My first question as regards the school reopening is: Are the reasons for closing schools in the first place now nonexistent? I can remember in one of my articles in June or so I suggested that the kids in Kailahun be brought to Kenema and Bo so that they could take their BECCE Exams. Tell me only one District was affected then! Now Ebola has crept all over the length and breadth of the country. To a large extent the President’s recent easing of the Emergency regulations was needed but perhaps it could have been done motivationally, meaning districts with zero cases should have fewer restrictions. I think parents are the most important factor in the reopening of schools. It is parents who will send their kids to school. They have the natural obligation to take care of their children. There is at the moment quite some crowding in the schools especially the Public Schools. The standards speak of around 40 pupils to one teacher, but we know that in most schools it ranges from 50 to 100. Of course we cannot talk of the class sizes. Why a lot of people are hesitant to support schools reopening before we get the national zeroes is because just on infection, can affect scores of communities. Take vomiting as an example. In our crowded classrooms one pupil vomiting is sure to reach many around his or her seat. Government has outlined a lot of measures they will put in place when schools reopen. The truth is the bulk of the citizenry have lost trust in authorities. We have examples of reasons of mistrust. Even this morning health authorities were talking about verifying their Staff on the Ebola response. Tell me how were people employed? And now to education; one critical factor in the education of children is play. There is hardly anything anybody can do to avoid play as children learn and grow also through play. The healing of their trauma will happen mainly through play. Let government create scenarios for schools reopening. Let Government tell us that the conditions under which schools will reopen. A blanket reopening statement may not be enough. With current appalling school conditions we need to know which schools can actually open. Take the sanitary situation in the schools. Do we have enough and decent latrines or toilets that reduce the possibly of contracting the disease? How will they ensure continuous water supply, when even in the city we are yet to get over this challenge never mind the separation of the Water resources Ministry from Energy! Just think of what it will cost us to open schools and lose more souls to Ebola. What is really wrong if we wait for the zeroes? Remember Prof. Peter Piot’s caution that Ebola is only gone when the last infected person dies or survives without infecting another. So to open or not to open schools? Tuesday February 10, 2015

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