Do not rush to reopen schools – Okudzeto to government

The Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has advised Government not to rush with plans to reopen schools, explaining that proper planning must be taken in making such a decision.

He said, government should forget about reopening for this academic year, while urging them to use this period to access the current situation of schools, especially the lower primaries who may not understand the protocols to fight the spread of the virus.

“…this is a very sensitive issue which requires careful considerations, we should not rush to reopen our schools. We have benefit of learning from other countries, France for example opened schools and within the first week we saw what happened. So I will urge a lot of circumspection.”

Speaking in an interview with Ghanaweb, the Former Deputy Education Minister called on government to engage various stakeholders in measures that need to be put in place to ensure the virus spread is controlled when they finally decide to reopen schools.

“Fortunately for us, this academic year is almost ended, the next academic year will begin in September this year. Can we use this period to really access the situation instead of rushing to reopen schools? ‘

‘… I will urge that we hold on. The union leaders, teachers, says they are not ready. So, for this academic year let’s forget about reopening particularly basic schools.”

“Government should be sitting with the unions, PTAs and also assess the status of our schools. As we speak, we have a lot of our public basic schools where children sit together, they share desks. If we reopen schools during COVID-19 and the experts are saying it will be with us for some time, we would have to probably change the sitting arrangements, change the furniture, etc”

“There are some schools that don’t have running water, we have to make that available. We cannot have that situation stay as it is and call for schools to be reopened.” He concluded.