Nairobi, 12 May, 2020 / 2:35 am (ACI Africa).
The Bishop at the helm of Education at the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB) has sought to calm parents who are anxious about the education of their children after weeks of indefinite school closure amid COVID-19 restrictions and urged them to prioritize the “health and safety” of their children.
“We understand the anxiety that parents, especially, those with candidates may have regarding their children’s prolonged absence from school. But dear parents, let us not forget that our children’s health and safety comes first,” the Chairman of KCCB’s Commission for Education and Religious Education, Bishop Paul Njiru Kariuki said on Sunday, May 11.
“Indeed, we would like our children to go back to school at the earliest opportunity,” Bishop Kariuki who was speaking at Holy Family Minor Basilica, Nairobi during a televised Holy Mass further said and advised the parents, “Let us wait for directives from those managing the situation and only take our children to school when it will be safe for them and for the academic and support staff in our institutions.”
Bishop Kariuki who is the Local Ordinary of Embu diocese, Eastern Kenya urged parents to take advantage of the children being at home to “strengthen family bonds, to pray together, reflect, share and have fun together.”
“In particular, I wish to remind parents that their homes are the first schools; indeed, it is at home that the earliest lessons in life are planted and nurtured; It is at home that virtues are cultivated; it is at home that valuable lessons about the value and dignity of work are learned; it is at home that family values that help us become responsible citizens are inculcated,” Bishop Kariuki emphasized.
