It's the parents who are keeping them at home,” primary school teacher Christian Muhindo said as he paced between empty desks. “They think that the children will be easily contaminated at school.” “They don't know that teachers have been taught to cope,” Muhindo said. Ebola has already claimed more than 60 lives in Mangina, a village of just a few thousand inhabitants. The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) has encouraged teachers to see that basins of chlorinated water are placed in schools. In a nation where half the total population of some 78 million is aged under 18, almost seven million children do not go to school, UNICEF estimated in 2016.

Source: Sunday Times September 05, 2018 10:07 UTC