ARUA CITY SCHOOLS ADHERE TO MINISTRY DIRECTIVE TO PREVENT SPREAD OF EBOLA

A hand washing facility installed at the gate of Ediofe boys primary school to enforce hand washing for all entrants to prevent the spread of Ebola.

By Sunday Amandi

Arua city

Following the directive by the Ministry of Health, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, for schools to observe strict Standard Operating Procedures to prevent the spread of Ebola Virus Disease, the schools in Arua city are adhering to the standards to maintain safety of the learners and the staff in schools.

Standard Operating Procedures for schools during an Ebola outbreak focus on surveillance, strict hygiene, and isolation to prevent person-to-person transmission.

Gerard Tayo, the administrator of the Oasis schools in Arua confirms that, all that is required is in place, and the standard operating procedures are being accurately observed in the schools.

“All learners, staff members and visitors are required to wash their hands with clean water and soap at the school gate before entering the premises, hand sanitizers have been placed in all offices to promoter regular hand hygiene, the schools have also prohibited handshakes and other unnecessary contacts, information on the spread of Ebola have also been displayed at strategic points to increase awareness,” Gerard said.

At Ociba Islamic primary school, the learners and all the visitors are empowered to follow the safety measures, and extend the same to their homes.

Salama Asibazuku, the head teacher of the school explains that, every directive is being observed in the school. “Any teacher who enters begins lessons with Ebola SOPS, and at the gate they wash their hands, no handshakes at the school, we sensitize the parents through the learners,” Salama Said.

It is the same spirit at Ediofe boys’ primary school, and this is being confirmed by Fred Afeti, a teacher at the school, “We have set a hand washing facility at the gate, in each class we have also put hand sanitizer in order to avoid the spread of this disease, we have sensitized these learners not to hug, handshaking is not even taking place too,” said Fred.

Joel Dralumani, the deputy head teacher of St. Kizito Ediofe Orphans Primary Schools says, the safety procedures are highly considered in the school, “We have majorly two entry points and it’s a must that any other person has to wash hands at the entrance, we have got two temperature guns at the two major entrances, we also have sanitizer, we have totally avoided handshaking, hugging and any other contact, you can greet someone verbally, and to our children we do morning briefs and I strongly believe when we do this uniformly, we are able to control Ebola totally,” Dralumani said.

The SOPs are intended to support safe learning environments while minimizing the risk of transmission of Ebola virus in schools.