MWEA (KENYA) – In Roka Preparatory School, Kenya, chickens strut around classrooms strewn with sawdust where once students sat and learned. In the sports field where they played soccer, one can see rows of sprouted spinach.
Since March, the corridors of this school have remained eerily silent with no students to be seen as the government suddenly closed all schools after the first cases of the virus were detected in March. Some private schools will be shut forever because of loss of income.
“I had to think of how to use the classrooms because they were haunting,” said school director James Kung’u as he tends vegetables in the fields around the institution, which is located 100 kilometres (62 miles) northeast of Nairobi.
“When you wake up in the morning, and you find the empty classes looking at you – as an investment, (it’s) very discouraging.”
According to the Kenya Private Schools Association, the nation’s 11,400 private primary and secondary schools serve about 2.6 million students. They range from those with basic amenities to ones with manicured lawns and state-of-the art infrastructure.
The association’s chairman Peter Ndoro said as many as 150 schools have closed permanently because of lack of income, adding that a big chunk of the 158,000 teachers in private schools is on unpaid leave.
Some schools have internet connectivity thereby enabling virtual learning. But a good number of schools do not have access to the internet. So the managements have to look at other options to make money.
Kung’u said with the farming activities going on in the school, there will be enough money to reopen it when the government issues the order and the 530 pupils will not have to look for another institution. So far, the school has lost 20 million shillings ($184,500) in fees. However, the farm produce helps the school provide partial salary to teachers.