Decision to cancel academic year was to benefit majority – Govt replies Private Schools Association

Spokesperson for the government of Ghana, Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah has said the decision by the government to suspend the remainder of the 2019/2020 Academic Year is a decision made in favour of the majority of Ghanaian school children.

“How many of the over 6,000 children in basic schools attend schools with enough infrastructure to ensure social distancing? Only a few can do that and the majority cannot. The president’s decision was not for the minority, it was for the majority. It can’t be something that you’ll do for a few to the detriment of the larger population. The decision is that we keep the schools closed until January by which time the committee would’ve finished putting in place measures to ensure the safety of the students as well as the opportunity for them to make up for the time lost in terms of the curriculum,” he said.

On Sunday, August 30, 2020, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo announced the cancellation of the 2019/2020 academic year for Senior High, Junior High, and Basic Schools across the country.

The president, however, announced that form 2 Senior High and Junior High school students were to resume schooling between October 5 to December 5 to complete the academic year.

“The Ghana Education Service, after further consultations, 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 the school of all streams of students, can occur in safety.”

Reacting to the president’s announcement, the Association of Private Schools has said even though the decision had its benefits considering the time we are in, it goes against them who have for the past five to six months been struggling to pay their staff.

According to the Public Relations Officer of the Association, Mr. Kyei Baffuor, the decision comes ahead of the recommendations of the committee set up by the government to work on the safe reopening of schools.

He said the association happens to have a member on the committee and would have had their concerns addressed if the decision had come after its report is presented to the Education Ministry.

However responding to this, the Minister of Information speaking on Okay FM with Kwame Nkrumah Tikese having said the decision to suspend the academic year was in the interest of the majority of school children, added that the committee does not have the mandate to determine when the schools could be reopened but to recommend modalities to ensure the safe reopening of schools in January 2021.

“It is true that a lot of private schools have facilities to ensure social distancing and it is also true that a lot of the private school teachers have not been paid since March and will likely not be paid until January. But let me clarify that the committee set up by the Minister of Education is not mandated to determine when the schools can be reopened. The committee is to recommend how we can safely reopen the schools when the time is determined,” he said.

Speaking on the loss of income for the private teachers, the minister said the government is hoping to help the situation through the implementation of the Unemployment Insurance proposed in parliament by the Minister of Finance.