Ministry threatens school shutdown over COVID-19 PROTOCOLS
By Emmanuel Boda Thomas
The National Ministry of General Education and Instruction has threatened to close down schools over failure to adhere to COVID-19 Standard Operation Procedures.
This comes following a claim made by the National Education committee for school inspection on observance of Covid-19 measures which reported that; for example, only four out of all the schools in Juba are following the measures set by the ministry to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
Addressing head teachers at Supiri Secondary School on Wednesday, The Deputy Minister of General Education and Instruction Martin Tako Moyi questioned School head teachers as to why they have not been following the covid-19 measures in their respectful schools in Juba.
“The report we have here is just terrible. I mean the children coming to the class without facemasks. What is our interest? Is it just getting money from the school fees? Is that our priority? It appears we have taken money to be the first thing in our lives then the lives of our children doesn’t matter much as long as we have the money,” Deputy Minister Martin Tako said.
“It appears that those who are leading the schools are not responsible. They fail to perform their duties properly. We have several times communicated to all schools all over the country. Our Ministry has not left any stone unturned. All the schools have been given all the necessary information.”
Martin Tako criticised teachers for not executing their duties to the expectation and threatened not to reopen schools in April should schools continue to relax their strict adherence to measures intended to curtail the spread of the coronavirus.
He said, “We in the Ministry of General Education and Instruction led by Hon. Awut Deng Acuil and all of us are determined; one is either the schools abide by the instructions we gave or two is we close down the schools simple. This is because we cannot venture with the lives of the school children.”
Martin Tako Moyi also blamed the school head teachers for the continued decline in discipline among school children across South Sudan. He accuses most schools of not administering discipline.
“If you are not administering discipline in your schools then you are a bad educator. If “Ustaz” can ask for a cigarette or “SOUT” from a student(s). Then what is that? I was told one teacher asked for a cigarette from a student in some school in Juba here,” Martin Tako stressed.
When asked, the head teacher at Supiri Secondary School, Ben Tombe Columbano said the report submitted to the Ministry by the school inspectors was not very accurate.
He guaranteed that the students are following the guidelines in his school.
“Based on his report he got from the inspectors, the report is not very accurate as stated if we try to look at it,” Mr. Tombe said.
“For example if we try to look at the number of students in the class. By then we were having four classes but now we have up to eight classes because of COVID-19. The report came out that most of the schools are not following the rules and guidelines of COVID-19 but we in the schools are trying hard to ensure they are always followed.”
Lavina William, a female student at Supiri Secondary School also confirmed that they are strictly following the COVID-19 infection prevention measures.
She said, “So we are coping with the COVID-19 preventative measures as you can see we have these hand sanitizers and buckets with clean water and soap for washing hands that we are using here.”
Another student from Supiri Secondary School Francis Simon said, “coronavirus is one of the dangerous diseases worldwide and concerning the measures, we have been taking them seriously because this is a deadly disease that has killed so many people around the World and we have heard about it. Some people take it as a simple disease but for me things are worse and we take the measures serious by washing our hands and putting on facemask daily.”
Schools in South Sudan were closed on March 20, 2020 through a Presidential Order as part of measures intended to slow the spread of the coronavirus but were reopened after nearly six months on 5th October, 2020 for finalists in Primary Eight (P.8) and Senior Four (S.4) who are expected to sit in February and March this year respectively.
All schools will open for the new academic year on 5th April this year, according the ministry of General Education and Instructions.
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