After deliberations with the Ghana Education Service and other stakeholders, The president of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has announced that second-year senior high and junior high school students will return to school on Monday, 5th October 2020.
He made to known in his sixteenth (16th) address to the nation on measures the government had taken to fight the coronavirus today.
He said the students will stay in school for a period of ten weeks in order to complete the academic calendar that was stalled due to the coronavirus.
The president said “the decision has been taken by the Ghana Education Service after consultation with the relevant stakeholders, for SHS 2 and JHS 2 students to return to school from 5 October to 14th December 2020 to complete their academic year”.
He added that “with Junior High Schools operating with class sizes of thirty (30), and Senior High Schools with class sizes of twenty-five (25), SHS 2 and JHS 2 students will be in school for ten (10) weeks to study, and write their end of term examinations. SHS 2 students in boarding houses are to return to their various dormitories on 5 October, whilst day students, respecting fully the COVID-19 protocols, will commute from home to their respective schools on the same date. Prior to reopening, all Junior and Senior High Schools will be fumigated and disinfected.
The president was quick to add that students and teachers will be provided with PPEs and materials that would curb the spread of the virus.
“Just as was done in the case of final year university, JHS and SHS students, all JHS 2 and SHS 2 students, as well as all teaching and non-teaching staff, will be given reusable face masks. Each school will be provided with Veronica buckets, gallons of liquid soap, rolls or tissue paper, thermometer guns, and 200 mils containers of sanitizers”.
He added that ” JHS 2 students will be given one hot meal a day. Assemblies and sporting events remain banned; and the use by outsiders or school premises for other activities is still not allowed. We will continue to ensure that each school, which does not have its own sick bay, has been mapped to a health facility, and care is provided to the sick by nurses assigned to them”.
The president added however the preschool and primary students will return to school in 2021.
“The Ghana Education Service after further consultatios has decided to postpone the remainder of the academic year for all nursery, kindergarten, , primary, JHS 1 and SHS 1 students the next academic year will resume in January 2021, with appropriate adjustments made to the curriculum, to ensure that nothing is lost from the previous year. The relevant dispositions will also be made so that the presence, at the same time, in school of all streams of students, can occur in safety,” the President explained.
Schools were closed earlier in March this year after the country recorded its first COVID-19 case. In the process of easing restrictions, final year senior high and junior high school students were asked to return to complete their final exams.
In his 15th address the University of Cape Coast, the University of Health and Allied Sciences, Technical Universities, and some other Colleges were permitted to return to school to complete the previous semester.
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