By Dr Takavafira Zhou |The school term comes to an end tomorrow and is a sigh of relief to millions of students and teachers who were constantly affected and infected by covid 19 due to absence of covid abatement equipment in schools, overcrowding in hotels, infrastructural limitations, bloated classes and shortage of teachers that cumulatively militated against appropriate 1:20 teacher-pupil ratio and social distance.

However, the shortage of testing kits and inability to test several teachers and pupils with mild to moderate symptoms that resonate with covid pose serious challenges to the spread of covid 19 as such infected teachers and pupils can spread covid 19 to their respective family members as they now have to travel to their respective homes.

It would have been prudent to test all teachers and pupils in order to possibly quarantine all those who test positive, until they have recovered. Having witnessed the quantum leap of covid 19 cases in schools and the ill-preparedness of the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education to respond to the pandemic, it is advisable to enhance preparedness before opening schools next year. The testing of teachers and pupils before congregation cannot be ignored, and so likewise is the provision of covid 19 abatement equipment to all schools. Mere assumption that schools have received PPEs as Ndoro, Hon Matema and perm Sec Thabela wanted us to believe, is dangerous, if not suicidal. It is also crucial to address not only these health and safety concerns, but also the welfare of teachers. Without a remedy to these key issues, the opening of schools for 2021 would be riddled with challenges, if not impossible. To be forewarned is to be forearmed.

Venceremos

Dr Takavafira M. Zhou (Ptuz President)