Times Of Swaziland: NDMA PRESENTS PPE FOR SCHOOLS

NDMA PRESENTS PPE FOR SCHOOLS
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BY KWANELE SIBIYA  on 30/06/2020 23:53:00


MATSAPHA - Making headway for the reopening of schools. This best describes
NDMA’s efforts to help in the reopening of schools, come July 6, 2020
This is because the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) has presented
personal protective equipment (PPE) to the Ministry of Education and Training
for high school pupils and teachers in preparation for the reopening of schools
next week. The presentation took place at the NDMA storehouse situated in
Matsapha yesterday.
Appreciation
Speaking during the event, the Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Education
and Training, Bertram Stewart, expressed his appreciation to the NDMA for the
assistance they had rendered to the ministry as it embarked on an exercise of
reopening schools in phases.
He said NDMA had assisted the ministry in securing 122 water tanks, which would
be delivered to schools across the country, hand-washing liquid soap, bar soaps
as well as face masks.
He mentioned that now that the ministry had received the items, it would deliver
them to the regional education officers. Stewart said in the last two months,
the ministry aired an announcement on national radio, informing teachers to
bring forth inventory of the items they were lacking in their respective
schools.
Stewart pointed out that the response from teachers was not satisfactory,
however, he said that might have been caused by the fact that most teachers were
at home as schools were closed when the announcement was made. “Now that we
have made an announcement that all teachers should report to schools, we are
optimistic that they will be in a position to know what exactly they are lacking
in their respective schools,” he said.
Stewart said had the ministry been aware of the inventory of the insufficient
items in schools, government could have long supplied the schools with the
needed items.
He urged all teachers to come and collect the items from NDMA. He also
highlighted that each pupil would be furnished with two masks and that the
educators’ masks would be delivered next week. Stewart emphasised that when
schools reopened, parents should make sure that their children had at least one
mask.
Hopeful
He said the pupils would then be offered two masks each as the ministry was
hopeful that the teachers would have collected all the masks offered by NDMA by
then.
He also thanked the teachers for heeding government’s call that they should go
back to school and that he was positive they would recognise that government
would ensure that they were safe from the coronavirus.
“We understand that we are faced with many challenges, including teachers who
want to be paid for doing nothing, but we are grateful that there are teachers
who know that their employer is government and when their employer commands them
to report back to school, they should do likewise,”   he said.