COVID-19 Screening in schools: Cameroon Says Move To Ensure Students Healthy For End-of-Year Exams

Secondary Education Minister, Prof. Nalova Lyonga Pauline Egbe has said the recent move launch by her ministerial department to screen all students and academic staff of the COVID-19 and to restrict access into campuses upon the presentation of the negative COVID test is aimed at guaranteeing the health students nationwide ahead of their end-year-examinations. 

Nalova have the explanation in an interview she granted state-run national bilingual tabloid, Cameroon Tribune. The MINESEC boss on 4 March 2021 issued a release ordering systematic screening of students and staff of all schools nationwide following the outbreak of the virus in most school campuses.

Quizzed the screening will be done in schools, Nalova, said the process has already begun in many schools after establishing a statistical data of the different schools to know how big or small each school is.

“We also had to identify the different locations of the teaching staff and the number of sick bays in different schools. We needed to evaluate, to know if we were going to carry out the process with nurses in the different school dispensaries or those in different health districts in the localities,” she said, adding, that the testing was for both the staff and students because of the need to ensure a clean schools and healthy students who will sit for the end-of- year examinations.

She noted that the process is run hand-in-gloves with the Ministry of Public Health as well as assured of the availability of testing kits with the MINSANTE to provide the health kits and the human resources to carry out the exercise.

“In the field, health personnel are already carrying out the process as required. We have carried out the necessary statistics and handed to the health team who are working accordingly. The health personnel are not just carrying out the process of testing students, but are also disinfecting school premises,” Nalova revealed.

Aside handling COVID-19 related issues as a matter of utmost priority, Nalova revealed that the ministry has had meetings with education stakeholders during which new measures to handle issues related to moral decadence in the school milieu will be handled. 

“This has to do with the problem of pornography, drug consumption and violence experienced within school premises,” she said.

Nalova revealed once a student is detected with the deadly virus, they will be withdrawn from the school premises, handed to the Ministry of Public Health for treatment. She appealed on the collaboration of all and sundry to ensure a clean school environment.