Private schools call for system to support students, teachers until 2021

The Ghana National Council of Private Schools (GNACOPS), has called on government to put in place a system to support students and teachers until schools formally reopen in January 2021.

This follows President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s announcement during the 16th COVID-19 update address that 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.

He added that 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 Akufo-Addo said.

Spokesperson for Ghana National Council of Private Schools (GNACOPS), Kyei Baffour in an interview with host of Atinka Fm’s AM Drive, Ekourba Gyasi, explained that e-learning has favored just a few elite depriving majority of students especially those in the deprived areas.

He noted that a structure to take care of the intellectual aspect of the students, as well as the economic aspect of the whole situation, will do both sides a lot of good.

“We have been promoting E-learning or virtual learning for some time now, but I must say that it only favors a few students, depriving a majority of them. The system is such that only a few have due advantage over the e-learning. There should be a system to help both sides so that neither the students nor the teachers will be affected by the January 2021 date.

Meanwhile, an Educationist, Daniel Oppong, has called on the Ghana Education Service (GES) to allow students repeat their respective classes to enhance their knowledge.

“I want the GES to allow these students to repeat the classes so that the students re-learn everything they had already learnt to enrich themselves. I think it would be better than gambling with the health of these students. It’s just one year. Trust me, these students have already forgotten what they learnt before the outbreak of COVID-19,” he explained.