Teachers will suffer managing contact hours amid social distancing – Retired Educationist

A retired Educationist, I.K Gyasi says the President’s directive on school reopening for final year students is confusing and lacked clarity.

He maintained that government ought to come clear on the implementation of the broad scope of the guidelines announced by the President for the partial reopening of schools.

President Akufo-Addo announced in his address Sunday night that final year students are to resume school while observing social distancing and other safety protocols.

“From Monday, 15th June 2020, the decision has been taken, after engagement with the Teacher Unions, whose co-operation I salute, to reopen schools and universities to allow for final-year junior high, senior high and university students to resume classes ahead of the conduct of their respective exit examinations.

“Indeed, final year university students are to report to their universities on 15th June; final year senior high school (SHS 3) students, together with SHS 2 Gold Track students, on 22nd June; and final-year junior high school (JHS 3) students on 29th June. JHS 3 classes will comprise a maximum of thirty (30) students; SHS classes a maximum of twenty-five (25) students, and University lectures will take place with half the class sizes,” the President said in his 10th address since the coronavirus pandemic.

But speaking on Anopa Kasapa on Kasapa 102.5 FM, Mr. Gyasi said it was unclear how social distancing rules could be observed in schools in respect of large class sizes.

“The class size may differ; some of the classes are even more than 35 and some instances a class may contain about 60 students. In this regard, how will the teacher handling for instance, Maths go about this? If he spends about 40 minutes to teach a whole class, how will he manage it all? How will he secure another 40 minutes to meet the next class? This will be a daunting task on the part of teachers.” he told host Kweku Owusu Adjei on Anopa Kasapa on Kasapa 102.5 FM.

Meanwhile, the Minister for Education, will on Tuesday, outline, in detail, the specific guidelines for the safe reopening of schools for final year students.