The Ministry of Education workshop for Kenya Secondary Schools Sports Association (KSSSA) is set to meet at Shimo la Tewa Secondary School located in Mombasa to streamline guidelines for the return of sports in Kenyan schools.
The workshop will be the fourth and last one in the series and will commence on Tuesday morning. According to KSSSA Chairman Peter Orero, leaders from Coast and Nairobi regional officials for secondary school sports will meet at Shimo la Tewa School.
The workshops that have regional officials across the country began on October 5 to 7, 2020, in Kakamega County where the Western Region Secondary Schools Sports Association officials and officials from Nyanza Region converged for three days. They went through protocols students and teachers alike will follow for games once schools resume.
The workshops are a clear indication that sports will be in schools soon after the government closed in March following the outbreak of the novel coronavirus to mitigate its impact.
After Kakamega, the workshops continued in Embu last week where Eastern region and North Eastern region officials assembled to familiarize themselves with protocols issued by officials from the Ministries of Education, and Health.
The workshops in Eldoret saw officials from Rift Valley and Central Region go through the process from October 9 to 11 paving the way for an event on Coast that will start on Tuesday.
Coast Secondary Schools Sports Association Chairman Juma Bora said on Tuesday that the location s where the workshops will take place is ready. Officials from various regions will arrive in Mombasa starting from Monday.
“At the request of the Ministry of Education, officials from the Ministry of Sports and Health officials have been conducting these workshops at the request of the Ministry of Education. We have covered a lot of ground as far as what schools will do before, during and after training is concerned,” Peter Orero said.
According to Orero, the Education Ministry will follow the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Sports on classifying the sports disciplines. Besides, he stressed that the Ministry of Education will only allow high-risk sports like swimming and rugby in schools when the Ministry of Health clears them.
“We have categorized our games into high-risk and low-risk with handball, athletics, badminton, football, lawn tennis, netball, basketball, volleyball, and hockey classified as low risk and will begin as soon as possible. The Ministry of Education will approve the protocols,” Orero said.
Orero said the protocols will reach counties, sub-counties, and finally, schools after the Ministry of Education approves them for implementation.
Orero added that the budgets of schools will increase because personnel from the Ministry of Health will have to be present in schools. This will include an official in charge of sanitizing balls and the number of balls for each match will be between 8 to 10 balls.
Schools will have to fumigate all match venues and players sanitized at every interval.
Orero added that school games are part of the curriculum and will resume once schools reopen.
Orero is the Dagoretti High School principal and Kenya Basketball Federation Treasurer. He said that school games and co-curricular activities are an integral part of the learning process and added that many renowned sports personalities in Kenya have had careers shaped while they were in secondary schools.