When The Ministry of Education announced that schools will reopen in November, it also disclosed that teaching will be conducted in shifts to decongest classrooms and respect physical distancing to prevent the spread of Covid-19. According to tentative guidelines, classrooms will be required to accommodate 50 per cent of the student capacity. Yet, despite the construction of 22,000 new classrooms, teachers say that schools don’t have enough classrooms. Normally, a classroom is supposed to host 46 students according to teaching and learning standards. However, in order to respect physical distancing, it is suggested that a classroom accommodates 23 students. However, teachers who spoke to The New Times said that even 23 students in a classroom is a large number considering the few number of available classrooms that are available. Jean Boscho Nkurunziza, the Head Teacher of G.S Kabuga Catholique in Gasabo district said they have over 4,000 who can’t be hosted if a classroom has to host 23 students for physical distancing. “Although we have 4,000 students, we will start receiving 2,800 students next month. We have 38 classrooms. If we divide 2,800 students by 38 classrooms, there would be huge congestion of over 73 students per classroom,” he said. He said that even when they distribute 23 students per classroom to respect physical distance, they will only host 874 students and about 2,000 students may not study. The school is building 16 more classrooms, but will not be sufficient enough to offset the congestion. The school requires 121 extra classrooms to accommodate the 23 student ratio per classroom, Nkurunziza said. “That is why suggestions to teach in shifts could be the next approach if we have to respect physical distancing to prevent the spread of Covid-19.,” he said. He said neighbouring schools have also constructed new classrooms and they need to work together to manage the situation. Students allowed to resume studies in the beginning of November are those in upper primary, all levels of secondary, TTC and TVET. Students in primary 5 and 6, those in senior 3, 5 and 6, those in TVET and students in TTC will resume second term studies on November 2 and end them on April 2, 2021 while primary four pupils and students in senior one, two and four will kick-off their second term on November 23 and end it on April 2. How teaching in shifts is proposed Frodouard Tuyishimire, the Director Health and HIV Prevention Ministry of Education told The New Times that there is a proposal in place on how teaching in shifts will be applied. The shifts will be split based on days. “We proposed that one classroom with 23 student acquire lessons on Monday and give students homework to do on Tuesday. Another class gets lessons on Wednesday and takes away homework for Thursday. Another class takes lessons on Friday and homework for Saturday,” he said. He said this means one day for classes and a day for doing work or homework for each shift. Teachers have also expressed worries about school feeding. “We might face challenges in school feeding because some students still have arrears for the first term,” added Nkurunziza. Officials at the ministry of education have called up parents, schools and stakeholders to collaborate in implementing school feeding programme. “The ministry of finance has tasked us to extend school feeding from secondary schools to primary students. Yet the budget is still limited,” said Tuyishimire.
