Reopening of schools: Josina Machel and Francisco Manyanga will have just 20 students per class – report

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Reopening of schools: Josina Machel and Francisco Manyanga will have just 20 students per class – report

2:04 CAT | 03 Jul 2020

Photo: O País

Maputo city’s Josina Machel and Francisco Manyanga Secondary schools say they will satisfy minimum conditions for reopening by having only 20 students per classroom.

Right at the entrance to the school grounds are two points for hand washing, a precondition for accessing the classrooms. With just over 800 students, the Josina Machel Secondary School needs many more of these.

“These points [are needed] for students to wash their hands in good time, because we know that they (students) all arrive at the same time, and before they go to class, they need first to wash their hands,” Josina Machel Secondary School director Orlando Dima says.

Another measure which may be mandatory in the school is the wearing of masks. Social distancing between students within the classroom has been taken care of. “We have arranged for each class to have 20 students, so now we have 44 classes. This is to say, in space terms, we can cater for all our students,” Dima says.

Francisco Manyanga Secondary School, also in Maputo city, usually has about 50 students per class, but with the new coronavirus, it too will have just 20 students in each classroom, where the desks are already pre-spaced.

“Normally, we have 19 classes, but they have been divided into 54. We have four rows of desks, each with five students. At the ends there will be one student on the side of the wall, and in the middle rows there will be one student at each desk,” director of the Francisco Manyanga Secondary School Lúcia Coana explains.

Controlling students during breaks so that there is no physical contact between them is another challenge the two schools face – for which reason, the school has enrolled the support of parents in sensitising students regarding social distancing during recess.

By Dário Cossa

Source: O País