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Is my child safe enough at school?

As a parent, all we want is safety for our children. We want to be assured of their safety when at

home, church and at school. Schools and Institutions therefore have to be aware of the child safety measures.

Mostly, we want to be assured of their safety when not at our arm’s length. For example, when the children are at school, we want to be assured that they are in safe

hands of able caregivers. The big question is, are the caregivers in school doing all they can to ensure

that our children are safe? Are they trained on basic First Aid should an emergency occur?

Our children spend more time in schools than at home. When the children leave our homes, the

duty to ensure safety is left in the hands of teachers. They have a responsibility to ensure that our

children are safe inside the school premises and when commuting to and from school.

Government effort

In the quest to ensure children safety, the former education cabinet secretary Dr. Fred Matiang’ i

ordered for all school buses and vans to be painted a similar color [yellow] and to be fitted with safety measures such as seatbelts and speed governors.

Despite all these efforts some schools still carry excess whereby, the children are required to share a sit. To worsen the situation, some

children do not have an active caretaker in the bus and hence they do not use the seat belts.

If you walk or drive around Kenyan roads in the morning or evening you will notice so many children

hang their hands or heads outside the school bus through the windows, you will also notice that

some children play in the school bus which is very dangerous, they are really squeezed to all fit in the

bus which is done as an attempt for the school to cut costs through not having to go for an extra trip

etc. When all this is happening, the people delegated with the task of ensuring safety are usually

showing little or no concern at all.

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Parents Role

It is important to know your Childs school emergency policy. For example, are the children told what

to do if the fire alarm goes on? Do the schools even have fire alarms? Does the school your child goes to even have fire extinguishers and first aid kits?

As parents, it is our duty to ensure that our children enroll in schools that have a strong safety policy.

The teachers and caregivers should have First Aid knowledge and should be active in ensuring safety

for our children. This includes simple things such as ensuring that every child is sited and secured

with a safety belt every time that they are traveling, sensitizing the pupils on the dos and don’ts in

the school bus or at school and any other relevant procedure. Safety first!

READ: Learn CPR to save lives.

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