Don’t carry students with other passengers, PSVs operators told
Matatu operators who will ferry students to their respective homes after the closure of schools have been asked not to mix them with other passengers as part of preventive measures against coronavirus.
Education Cabinet secretary George Magoha yesterday said boarding schools’ management, which have until tomorrow to shut down operations, should make arrangements with the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) on how the students will be dropped off at their respective homes.
The closure of schools follows President Uhuru Kenyatta’s directive meant to minimise the risk of spread of the deadly virus.
“The vehicles must not carry any other passengers en route,” reads a circular by the CS sent to regional and county education officials, National Parents Association, Private Schools Association and the International Schools Associations.
The vehicles, which Magoha said must be sanitised before being boarded, should take the learners to their respective homes or nearest designated drop off points which must be within proximate distance to their homes where parents should be notified to pick them up.
Keep record
Parents who could pick up their children from school privately were encouraged to do so.
There was confusion at Starehe Boys Centre after the administration barred parents without private cars from picking up their children.
Parents protested the move as most of them have no vehicles. Eight per cent of the students are sponsored.
But the school administration remained adamant insisting they will use school buses to drop off the students at their nearest home towns.
According to the guidelines issued by Magoha, school managements were also advised to instruct learners on how to stay safe on transit, and this includes keeping a “conscious record” on the people they interact with on their way home.
