We should revisit debate on safety in our schools

On Tuesday, Ketrine Gift Muhindo, a four-year-old baby class pupil was found dead in a septic tank at her school, Margherita Demonstration School in Kasese District.
School authorities have since claimed that she must have fallen into the tank as she went to answer nature’s call, but police in Kasese have since launched an investigation into the circumstances under which the little girl could have died as there is a school of thought that is inclined to believe that the girl could have be killed before being thrown into the septic tank.
Little Muhindo’s tragic death may have occurred under different circumstances, but it points at what is becoming a very frequent occurrence in our schools and school organised events.
Most of the deaths have been in swimming pools. That category of deaths dates back to June 2016, when a three-year-old pupil of Mother Manjeri Day and Boarding Primary School in Kirinya, Bweyogerere, drowned in a school swimming pool.
This year has been the worst. In February, a Primary One pupil of Credo Daycare Nursery and Primary School in Laroo Division was found dead in a hotel swimming pool in Gulu District. Similar deaths followed in July and August in Kampala and Kasese.
That is too much death for us to sit back and do nothing. We should be subjecting the safety measures in our schools to scrutiny.
The occurrence of fires in various schools across the country compelled the police to come up with a raft of security and fire guidelines, including a requirement for the schools to activate safety and security committees for staff and students, controlled access to school premises, holding of regular meeting with staff and other relevant people and acquisition of firefighting equipment and skills.
The police and the ministry have been conspicuously silent in face of the recent accidents, which is very disturbing.
Whereas the handbook on teacher/instructor/tutor education and training policies, which was released in September 2010, attempts to outline basic requirements and minimum standards expected, the document is inclined to focus more on the kind of infrastructure that education managers and proprietors should put in place in order to ensure provision of quality education and basic safety.
Those were the threats of the time. The document is, therefore, not entirely relevant today.
It is high time the ministry goes back to the drawing board to address matters around safety in terms of protecting children from falling in septic tanks or drowning in swimming pools. Those are the real and present dangers.

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