Prez Akufo-Addo Orders Committee to 'Quickly' deal with Schools' COVID-19 Issues

President Nana Akufo-Addo has instructed a sub-committee of the Presidential COVID-19 Taskforce to look into matters arising from the reopening educational institutions, especially COVID-19 complaints.

The sub-committee is to monitor schools over the next eight weeks as most Senior High School students prepare for the West African Senior School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE), the Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah has said.

Tertiary education institutions and Senior High Schools reopened on June 15, 2020, and June 22, 2020, respectively.

Following the reopening of schools, Accra Technical University, Accra Girls Senior High School (AGISS), Wesley Grammar, Odorgonno have all recorded cases.

Also the death of a final-year student of the KNUST SHS and the alleged teacher negligence has sparked public uproar.

This has led many to pressure the government to shut down schools again.

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Already, the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), has cautioned the Akufo-Addo government to shut down educational institutions to avoid the risk of mass community spread of the coronavirus disease.

Also, popular investigative journalist, Manasseh Azure has also added his voice to ciritics calling for closure of schools.

But the Information Minister said, government is putting in place special arrangement to address the concerns of worried parents.

 “If you are a parent and you are reading a story online and you are hearing something, we encourage you to call 311 from tomorrow [Friday, 10 June 2020]”. He noted

That line, Mr Oppong Nkrumah noted, has “dedicated officers” who are “being put there to help connect parents to the schools to validate whether some of the reports are true”.