Teachers in Chiana lament pupils attitude of not wearing nose masks

Correspondence from Upper East Region

Teachers at Chiana in the Kassena-Nankana West District say one of the difficulties they encounter in the fight against the spread of the novel Coronavirus Disease in schools is the inability on the part of pupils to safely keep their nose masks.

The Teachers say even though the education directorate in the district, as part of the COVID-19 preventive measures, has provided schools with some Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) including reusable nose masks which have been distributed to pupils, fighting the spread of the viral disease in the schools is still a huge challenge because pupils cannot safely keep their nose masks for continuous use.

The Teachers say the pupils easily lose the nose masks distributed to them within a short period and there is always the need to supply them with new ones, a situation that is seriously dragging the campaign against the disease backwards as the schools have run out of supplies of the Personal Protective Equipment most importantly the nose masks and sanitisers.

Speaking exclusively to GhanaWeb in an interview when the 1Cedis for Change Campaign donated PPEs to schools in the area, the Teachers explained that the challenge was particularly very serious among pupils in lower classes where majority of the pupils have lost the nose masks given them not once but countless times.

They complained that the pupils mostly lose the nose masks to other colleagues in the classrooms or do not return to school the next morning with them.

The Teachers also mentioned the misuse of the alcohol-based sanitisers and difficulties in the enforcement of the social distancing protocol in the schools due to a dearth in classroom furniture.

“When the Covid-19 came and we resumed schools, there was intervention from our GES office. They gave us soap and sanitisers. As Teachers, we educated our children [pupils] to practice handwashing and how to use the hand sanitisers that were provided.

We were also supplied with nose masks and we distributed them. But the challenge here is that our kids are so young and they throw the nose masks away and also misuse the sanitisers.”

“We are also not able to keep to the social distancing measures because we do not have enough furniture in our classrooms for our children. The desks are very few and we have to manage so that every pupil can get a place to sit”. The Teachers told GhanaWeb’s Upper East Regional Correspondent, Senyalah Castro.

The teachers have however said they have not relented in their efforts to ensure the virus finds no place in the schools. They said education on the virus has been increased with proper hand washing practices and good personal hygiene on top of the campaign message.

The stated that by the kind benevolence of some organizations such as the 1Cedis for Change Campaign, some items have been supplied them and that would address the challenge for some time.

They chipped in words of appeal for more classroom furniture, school uniforms, books and other learning materials to help make teaching and learning effectively in the schools.