The Ministry of Education has instructed school authorities who are yet to take delivery of government Personal Protection Equipment to reach out to their district education offices.
According to the Ministry, adequate equipment has been distributed to all district education offices across the country.
In an interview with Citi News, the PRO of the Education Ministry, Kwasi Obeng-Fosu, called on all stakeholders to cooperate in ensuring that COVID-19 cases are not recorded in schools.
“We had our last meeting on Thursday then we started the distribution of PPE across the nation. Those who are closer have received theirs and those in the hinterlands should receive theirs too.”
The mode of distribution of the PPE is such that they are received by the regions and distributed to the various districts. The district education offices then redistribute to the schools.
“We believe now that most of the regions that have received theirs, the schools should receive their PPE. The schools who are yet to receive [their PPE] should not wait for the districts to bring to them but move to the schools.”
He further indicated that all students are being promoted to the next level as school reopens despite their absence from school for close to a year.
The decision, according to Mr Obeng-Fosu is part of the government’s plans to make up for the lost time as Kindergarten to Primary six will use 42 weeks to complete their trimester.
The junior high school first and second years will offer 42 weeks while the final year students will do 39 weeks.
Debates over the resumption of schools
The Member of Parliament for Ningo-Prampram, Samuel Dzata George is advocating for the closure of schools for students in Kindergarten, nursery and lower primary.
According to him, the threat of COVID-19 cannot be underestimated for children in these educational brackets.
The Dean of the Faculty of Education, at the University for Development Studies (UDS), Dr. Ibrahim Mohammed Gunu has asked the Ghana Education Service (GES) to run a shift system for some public basic schools as they return from their COVID-19 induced closure.
This, according to the academic is the surest means of downsizing the overcrowded classrooms in most basic schools across the country.
