Legal Practitioner and Professor of Accounting, Stephen Kweku Asare, also known as Kwaku Azar is calling on the government to reconsider its decision to partially reopen schools starting on Monday.
Universities in Ghana will reopen on June 15, 2020, to enable final year students to prepare and write their exit examinations.
Senior High Schools and Junior High Schools will subsequently reopen on June 22 and 29 respectively to only final year students to enable them prepare and write their final examinations.
This was announced by President Addo Dankwah Akufo-Addo in his 10th televised address to the nation on May 31, 2020.
According to him, the reopening is with the appropriate enhanced safety protocols.
However, in a Facebook post, Professor Azar said the COVID-19 numbers do not support the idea, thus asked the government to call off the reopening of the schools.
“The COVID-19 numbers do not support a partial reopening of schools on Monday. The government should look at the numbers and refine the reopening policy accordingly”.
Schools in the country were ordered to shut down after a directive from the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on March 15, 2020, as part of measures to stop the further spread of the Coronavirus disease [COVID-19] in the country.
With the announcement by the government to reopen schools, many have expressed worry over the decision and the possibility of a spike in the country’s case count.
Ghana’s COVID-19 case count stands at 11,422 with 4,156 recoveries and 51 deaths, according to the Ghana Health Service’s update on Sunday, June 14, 2020.
Education Minister on measures put in place to protect teachers and students
Meanwhile, the Minister of Education, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh has said the government will ensure strict adherence to COVID-19 safety protocols in the various universities as they reopen on Monday.
Dr. Prempeh at a meeting with University Vice-Chancellors said adequate measures have been put in place to protect all students, teaching and non-teaching staff.
“We hope that since we are reopening schools, we can enforce social distancing and the thought is that if we open for final years, we have enough time and space for lecturers to be able to do social distancing. The President has ordered the Ministry of Health that before school reopens, every tertiary institution, public and private, must be sprayed.
“This is to ensure that if there are surfaces the virus is on, it is killed before the students come, to protect the lecturers and the students. For schools, there are veronica buckets and sanitizers that are being supplied.”
