Liberian schools remain closed
January 30, 2015
Monday February 2, 2015 was the date originally set for Liberia to reopen schools closed as a result of the deadly Ebola epidemic. Although the rate of infection has slowed down, schools will remain closed for another two weeks, a statement from the education ministry said on Friday. The delay is intended to give parents and pupils more time to prepare.
Several days ahead of the planned reopening, it was clear that not all the 5,000 public and private schools in the West African country were ready for the resumption of classes on February 2. Moses Carter, principal of the Wells Hairston High School in the capital Monrovia, has been coordinating efforts to conduct orientation tests for new pupils. "We are not 100 percent or even 75 percent prepared," he told DW at the end of January.
New emphasis on hygiene
Carter's school is not an exception. There is simply not enough money to fund the mass reopening and make sure pupils are adequately prepared and assessed. Fighting the Ebola virus has taken a tremendous toll on the country's economy as well as tearing apart the country's social fabric. However, the ministry of education has issued a policy guideline for schools. Much of it has to do with hygiene, said Albert Coleman, senior policy advisor at the ministry.
"It is basically to ensure that school is safe for students and so when they return, there are certain things they should do, such as hand washing and paying general attention to cleanliness," he said.
Once schools open again, pupils' temperatures will be checked regularly. If a child shows signs of being sick, he or she will immediately be isolated and taken to a health facility for a thorough examination. Shortly before the planned reopening, Moses Carter said his school had not yet received thermometers for the temperature tests, but other precautionary measures were in place, such as making hand washing obligatory before entering the school.
These measures are also in place in Guinea where schools reopened in mid-January. The third worst affected country in West Africa, Sierra Leone, has announced that classes will resume in March.
Valuable time lost
Many of the pupils of Wells Hairston School had been looking forward to being back at their desks on Monday. Teenager Armah Smith said he and his friends had lost a lot of time because of Ebola. "We have been sitting at home and our parents have no money. I am not afraid of being in school because of Ebola," he said. Linda Freeman said she was happy she had not contracted the virus and now "I want to complete my education."
As Armah Smith indicated, many Liberians spared by the virus have been hit hard financially and do not have the money to pay school-related costs. This is reflected in a low rate of new enrolment at Wells Hairston High School, Alexander Moore, the school's vice president, told DW.
"The statistics I have taken for our school year are very low, the reason being that parents are all complaining of the crisis that engulfed our country. We hope and pray that the government will step in so that parents will have the opportunity to send their children to school."
The government has already taken some steps to ease the financial burden on parents. It has suspended the collection of tuition fees which cost as much as $375 (330 euros) per semester. It has also made the wearing of uniforms optional for the first academic semester. The atmosphere in Liberia is still subdued as people come to terms with the devastation caused by Ebola. It is estimated that more than 3,000 children have become Ebola orphans.