Don’t be in a Hurry to Reopen Schools – PTA’s To Government

The National Council of Parent – Teacher Associations (NVPTAs) has contributed to the discussions on whether it is safe for the Ghana Education Service to reopen schools.

In the past few weeks, there’s been a lot of speculation and heated debates about how the Director General of the Ghana Education Service Professor Kwasi Opoku Amankwa wrote to seek plans and strategies from the Teacher Unions as input for preparation towards the reopening of schools.

In a press release issued by the association on 20th may, 2020, the association indicated that it’s premature for the “Government through the Ministry of Education and GES should not be in a hurry to reopen the schools in the wake of the pandemic assuming community spread.”

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The association also argued that, “there is no sufficient evidence based on science and data from the Ghana Health Service (GHS) and other credible health agencies that the infection rate has taken a nosedive consistently to acceptable levels to warrant schools reopening and therefore parents foresee a huge difficulty in ensuring strict compliance of the protocols among children particularly the social distancing, wearing of nose masks for long hours and getting results on time for the proposed regular testing before students move in and out of school premises daily.”

BELOW ARE THE ASSOCIATION’S SUGGESTIONS TO GOVERNMENT

1.Government through the Ministry of Education and G.E.S should not be in a hurry to reopen the schools in the wake of the pandemic assuming community spread.

2.t is also our view that government gives itself a little more time to monitor the rate of infections up to say August or September to ascertain a continuous downward trend of infections before considering reopening, being mindful that the disease has not yet had any known cure.

3. Nonetheless, the final year students could be treated differently should WAEC decide to conduct this year s WASSCE and BECE examinations any time soon.

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