St. Joseph’s Matoyi school in Navakholo in need of aid to set up classrooms

As schools gear up for reopening in January, it is still evident that most schools will not be able to adhere to the ministry of health regulations on combating Covid-19. St. Joseph’s Matoyi primary school in Bunyala Central, Navakholo constituency is among those that the administration is worries of the opening. According to the school’s headteacher Mrs. Jane Wekesa the school is in dire need of classrooms since the one used by grade four pupils is in a poor state. She said the school has a population of over 700 pupils and there is a lot of congestion in the classrooms, where a class holds about 80 learners, hence will not be able to achieve the social distancing directive. Grade four pupils in the school will have to go back to the harsh reality of learning in a mud classroom, with the wall on one side in danger of collapsing. The County government of Kakamega since the inception of devolution has been running a early childhood centre programme in every ward, but apparently the project has not been effected in the school. When schools reopen, 110 nursery pupils will be forced to continue sharing the partitioned room, making distancing impossible. Mrs. Wekesa was also quick to point out that the school doesn’t have a water point, and they rely on harvesting rain water, which makes matters harder if it doesn’t rain. “Covid-19 regulations require us to have water stations for students and teachers to wash their hands but this might be a challenge since we mainly rely on rain water.” She urged the ministry of education, well wishers and the Navakholo CDF office to move with speed and help build classes before January.