SCHOOLS OPENED HAPHAZARDLY-ZCEA

By CHIKUMBI KATEBE

THE decision to open schools before eradicating the cholera pandemic in Lusaka was done in an haphazard manner that left children vulnerable to contracting the disease, says Zambia Civic Education Association executive director, Judith Mulenga.

Ms Mulenga said schools were a high contamination grounds for communicable diseases, and that as long as cholera was still around, children were more inclined to contracting the disease at school.

She explained that a lot more measures should have been put in place to ensure schools were 100 percent decontaminated, and more sanitary facilities were in place to reduce contamination.

“I think they just hurried through everything which was expected from the PF Government which has continued to take U-turns in policy pronouncements. I think a lot more thought should have gone through, a lot more measures should have been in place to ensure the children get an education even when they are not school,” he said.

“Of course we appreciate that fact that keeping them away from a place where they are going to get cholera is ultimately in their best interest, because at the same time we don’t want children to get cholera and die simply because they want to get an education.

She was reacting to the number of schools that have remained closed in Lusaka, while some schools closed within three (03) days of opening for the 2018 academic calendar after a cholera scare. Ms Mulenga said it was unfortunate that the academic calendar would definitely be affected with the continued closure for some schools while other schools continued with learning. She said Government should have ensured that all schools should have been perfectly decontaminated, and all that all children entering learning institutions be disinfected and assured of their safety.

“I think that could have been a much faster and more effective option than what is actually happening that children are allowed to start school then turned away over a cholera scare,” he said.

And Ms Mulenga urged the Ministry of Health to be more transparent in the goingson about the cholera epidemic by getting everybody involved in the fight against cholera.

“We are duty bound to do everything possible to make this country a better place to live in,” she said.