The creativity and resiliency of teachers is one of the reasons that the Kenya Women Teachers Association is proud of the teaching fraternity in Kenya.

Our teachers do more than just teach. Students often form bonds with teachers and rely on this trust to ask for advice and guidance, especially during times of personal or communal crisis. As has been demonstrated during the Covid-19 pandemic, our teaching fraternity has scored highly both in and out of the classroom

Both teachers and students have experienced isolation, uncertainty, grief, and loss during this time.  And as the government through the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health work with other education stakeholders in recovering learning loss and keeping our schools open, we stand in solidarity with teachers in the quest for safer and healthier working conditions.

Championing the welfare of teachers, KEWOTA continues to play its role in empowering our teachers by giving them a voice, continually calling for safe spaces where teachers can work to develop our children is at the top of our goal.

A few critical issues jump out regarding teacher preparedness as our schools grapple with the health challenge. For instance, despite the ongoing national roll-out of the vaccination exercise, we are cognizant of the fact that children under the age of 12 years cannot be vaccinated.
In light of the impending fourth wave of infections, we urge for continuous discussions regarding the health protocols around teachers and staff who are more engaged with this age group in both primary schools and early childhood education

Ensuring all teachers get their double vaccination doses is imperative but above all we must maintain the health and safety of all teaching and non-teaching staff and environments. To make school environments safe, additional health and hygiene measures should be implemented.

In Nairobi’s primary schools for example, the availability of waterless hand sanitizer was associated with reduced prevalence of water borne diseases. Children were more likely to clean their hands after using the toilet if hand sanitizer was available (compared with soap and water)

We therefore strongly feel that providing young children with access to water less hand sanitizers in primary schools and ECDs will substantially lower the risk of infections and thereby protect our teachers.

Furthermore, use of thermometer-based screening coupled with teacher training on the management of suspected cases may allow teachers to detect fever in children upon school entry and exclude ill children from entry.

These measures in our view will go a long way in ensuring the safety of teachers who are exposed to the unvaccinated age group of pupils. Additionally, teachers who are increasingly facing the daunting task of supporting students in covering lost ground require new skills and capacities. They are operating in a modified environment, ensuring students recover by delivering an irregular syllabus.

Using our membership network as leverage, Kewota is prepared to partner with the Ministry of Education to promote school based psychosocial support to our teachers According to UNICEF assessments, many children and teachers continued to suffer symptoms of psychosocial stress, with symptoms including withdrawal, anxiousness, fear, denial and depression.

 The UNICEF findings indicate that there was a serious need to develop the capacity of teachers and school staff to better support the psychosocial wellbeing of the children suffering from trauma and to deal constructively with problem behaviors arising from it. In addition, children were in need of services to help them overcome challenges and stress related to living in poverty
With schools consolidated and reorganized the needs for psychosocial support were enormous.

Recognizing that schools are both a place for learning and a place for children to overcome the psychosocial stress of emergencies, Kewota plans to mobilize a partnership-based platform to support training for teachers and principals to help them recognize signs of distress or impaired daily functioning among their students.

Benta Opande is the CEO, KEWOTA