Parents of final year and second year Gold track students of the Accra Girls Senior High School are demanding an immediate vacation of their wards following the alleged outbreak of COVID-19 in the school.
It is alleged that six students and one teacher had been rushed to the hospital, after contracting the virus in the school.
According to the parents, since the news broke, all efforts to get the authorities to confirm or disprove it proved futile.
This led to the besieging of the entrance of the school on Monday morning around the 0600 hours by parents and guardians to demand an immediate release of their wards from the school.
Mr Shaibu Adamu, one of the parents, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency said if school authorities had been cooperative to let them know the true situation in the school, parents would not have besieged the school.
“We have a PTA WhatsApp platform and since the news broke on the COVID-19, we have asked the authorities if it is true or false, the steps they are taking to control the situation and we have also tried to find out which of the students have contracted the virus so that parents can know what to do, but none of the authorities are prepared to talk to us.
“Some of the students managed to call their parents to tell them the situation in the school and trust me, the children are sick with headaches and dry cough. We heard an ambulance came to convey six of the students to the hospital in the night.”
For his part, Mr Adamu said the parents meant no harm by invading the school premises but only wanted to be sure of the safety and health of their wards.
“We are not doing anything untoward here. All we are demanding is that the authorities address us, tell us which of our children have the COVID-19 and what they are currently doing to control the situation so that we parents can have some little peace of mind.
“All the Assistant Headmistress told us is that parents, your wards are safe. Go home. Is that all? They have to convince us,” he lamented.
After besieging the entrance of the school premises, the Assistant Headmistress of the School together other authorities addressed the parents.
Maame Serwaa, another parent, said: “When we asked of the students who had contracted the virus, the Assistant Headmistress said, ‘the situation is under control. The fact that they couldn’t tell us it’s not true, but said it is under control, means we should all know the answer.”
Meanwhile, she said the Chairman of the Parent-Teacher Association had taken GH¢150.00 from each parent to purchase personal protective equipment and other necessities for the students.
“The PTA Chairman told us the School Authorities were aware of the money they took, but the Assistant Headmistress just told us that she is not aware. Meanwhile, a table was mounted just in front of the school for the monies to be paid. They have duped us.
“Moreover, the day we brought our wards and came to pay the money, nobody checked our temperature and that of the children. Things are just not in order here,” she said.
Some parents told the Ghana News Agency that information they had gathered from their wards via telephone call indicated that the students were not being taught by the teachers and were not well fed and that no authority was ensuring that students adhered to the COVID-19 safety protocols.
The Ghana News Agency observed that some of the students were standing on the second floor of their classroom block communicating with their parents who were standing at the entrance, to assure them of their safety, hence the need not for them to worry.
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