Eight months since they were closed due to Ebola, schools across Sierra Leone are to reopen in March.
According to a statement from State House late yesterday, the decision was reached at a consultative meeting with line ministries and development partners chaired by President Ernest Bai Koroma.
It is not clear what will happen to the several schools being used as Ebola care and treatment centres.
The president said the education sector was one of the most badly hit by the Ebola outbreak and that the meeting was to bring together the education ministry and partners to share plans to get education back on track, describing the sector as one of most badly hit by the Ebola outbreak.
He expressed the need for the “appropriate positioning of facilities to adequately address some of these issues.”
Education Minister Dr Minkailu Bah said government would extend to boys the school subsidy being paid for girls in secondary school to “remove the burden on parents” and that teaching and learning materials would also be provided.
He said the ministry would be engaging the communities and that they had been working with the Sierra Leone Teachers’ Union (SLTU), Conference of Principals and Head Teachers’ Council to enhance the reopening process.
“We are planning to make sure our schools are safe and disinfected so that we can get back our children to schools,” Dr Bah said, adding that protocols will introduced including the provision of sensor computers to be used in tertiary institutions and thermometers for use in schools.
Chlorinated water buckets will also be made available in all schools for hand-washing.
The Country Representative for the UN children’s fund – UNICEF – Roeland Monasch called for effective community engagement and mothers’ clubs.
The head of the UK Ebola Task Force in Sierra Leone, Donal Brown urged caution. He said the move could impact the attainment of zero new Ebola cases and suggested a proper risk assessment, vis-à-vis the state of the disease and condition on the ground.
Children’s affairs minister, Alhaji Moijueh Kaikai expressed concern over the control of children in preparatory schools.
© Politico 22/01/15
