Schools must have isolation centres

EACH school is required to allocate a room where a student or teacher with a Covid-19 symptom can be isolated until health workers arrive, says Education Secretary Dr Uke Kombra.
It is one of the guidelines set by the national education board for provincial education authorities and school management to follow in the event there is a Covid-19 case in school.
It will help schools manage cases and conduct contact tracing instead of shutting down schools in the entire province.
“In a case where a single school is affected, we cannot close all the schools in the province,” Kombra said.
“Actions would be taken on that particular school to determine the continuation of classes or to extend suspension of classes.”
He said in the case of Port Moresby, they had to close down schools recently because of the increasing number of cases.
Meanwhile, Kombra said the third batch of the tuition fee subsidy should be disbursed to schools by this week.
Of the K486 million budgeted for the subsidy, the Education Department has received K125 million from the Finance Department.
Schools have already been paid K95 million and will be receiving their share of the K30 million soon.
It leaves a balance of K361million for the rest of the year.
Kombra urged schools to be patient with the department given the economic strain the country is facing.
“We are sending out money as we are receiving it from the government,” he said.