Ozioma Onyenweaku
I went for a burial, came back and got sick. Don’t worry about what you are thinking right now. I thought of it too because of the exposure even though well-guarded. Everybody in my home put on his or her own safety cap. Very suspicious of every ill I complained off. Even when the doctor had through test convinced himself of the acute malaria to treat, everyone was still skeptical and kept more distance when cough (though not dry) was added to the complaint. That was well understood, anyway. Not with the way the COVID-19 is ravaging the entire nation. Desperate situation calls for desperate actions.
That actually brings me to the issue of the reopening of schools. Safety should be our priority. The very young ones need extra care and attention to get the safety code right. Parents must do their full due diligence at schools before releasing the young ones. Ensure that the schools are intentional in following COVID-19 protocols and safety guidelines. It should not just be the eye service kind of compliance. Some schools would put out the tap and set empty liquid soap and sanitizer dispensers.
I got closer to one of such displays; and out of curiosity, i turned on the tap. No water! I tried dispensing the soap and sanitizer only to discover that both containers were empty; yet they were put in such a colourful and strategic position that one would have given the school a very big pass mark. That, of course, was before the last vacation. Hold on! Do not think that I walked away without ensuring that the needful was done about the shortfalls I observed in that school! No! I even promised to follow up; and I did.
It is hoped that with the second wave of the COVID-19, we shall take more responsibility for the safety of the students. Let us for once be very determined in consciously making safety a priority. This is time for school inspectors to be more committed to their assignment. Some of the private schools are more about saving costs and making more profits without much ado. The government schools are the worse off because the students are like a sheep that many people own that ends up going hungry.
Now to my main worry and the mainstay of this article! The schools in rural areas! As I see students, pupils actually, trooping to schools, I thought of the public schools. Not just the public schools but the ones in the rural areas. I look around how deficient and neglected some public schools in the cities are, and I weep for the ones in the rural areas. These schools in the rural areas lack the barest of the basic things for education; then how will they cope meeting up with the COVID-19 safety rules and regulation?
It is not in debate that for schools in rural areas, it is “weep more for me, my people.”
One would expect that the government of the various states and local governments would take the initiative of providing the necessaries at rural public schools to ensure compliance with COVID-19 protocols and safety rules if students must be in school.
Given the mass movement during the festivities, one is safe to conclude that the rural areas, the major destination of these travels cannot be safe now.
Wider dissemination of the COVID-19 message is required in the rural areas. The teachers and students in the rural areas need a lot more enlightenment on the issue of COVID-19 in order to embrace the seriousness of the pandemic as it ravages on.
The awareness of the COVID-19 is at its lowest in the rural areas. If the covid-19 roars this much in the cities where greater awareness creation has been done on the COVID-19; then how much harm we could expect in the rural areas.
This is calling on all well-meaning individuals and corporate organizations to join the safe rural school initiative more particularly with respect to this covid-19. Our future leaders are very much in the rural areas now, and we owe them the needed protection through enlightenment and provision of safety materials. You and I can affect our little spaces in this regard. Who is game?