Parents worry while crowded Kenyan universities reopen after virus shutdown
A huge selection of children formed an orderly queue that snaked through Nairobi's biggest slum Kibera on Monday, ready to enter classrooms for the first time since March, when the federal government closed universities after Kenya reported it has the first COVID-19 case. The country is the last in East Africa to totally reopen its schools. Children in grades four, eight and 12 came back to class in October hence they could prepare for exams postponed amid the pandemic. The World Health Group and the U.N. children's agency UNICEF say prolonged college closures because of COVID-19 present many risks for children in poor countries.
Higher rates of teenage pregnancy, poor nutrition, and long term dropouts from school are actually among the dangers. Just about all boys and girls wore masks because they stood beyond your Olympic Key School's gates, holding out their turn as school officials took temperature ranges and squirted side sanitizer into their palms. The real danger, however, lurked inside.
The federal government has tried to ensure the safety of students and teachers by distributing more than half a million desks to schools and supplies of soap, Education Minister George Magoha said on Sunday.
Kenya's COVID-19 cases began surging found in October and peaked found in November in the relatively low fee of 972 cases each day, according to a Reuters tracker. The country has recorded a complete of just one 1,685 deaths and 96,802 cases, Wellbeing Ministry data showed on Sunday. Examining is limited.
Another parent, Maureen Adhiambo, said she was grateful her kids had avoided the virus and were able to return to school in Monday. Her neighbor's teenage son recently collapsed with difficulty in breathing and passed away, in what the spouse and children believes was an unconfirmed circumstance of COVID-19."Our school is overcrowded, that is my biggest concern in bringing my children back again," the 34-year-older said.
