We are disappointed president said little on education in coronavirus update - Kofi Asare

The Executive Director of the Africa Education Watch, Kofi Asare, has expressed disappointment in the president’s address to the nation on Sunday, January 31, 2021, stating that it expected him to make a more profound statement on the lack of compliance to physical distancing.

He also said he was disappointed that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo said nothing on the delay of supply of PPE to public basic schools.

The president reactivated some restrictions on the country, including the indefinite suspension of weddings and the reduction of funeral services to only private ceremonies involving at most 25 persons.

Among the re-introduced protocols, the president said very little able schools or the Personal Protective Equipment that are expected to be supplied to them, which Kofie Asare, says, was quite disappointing.

“We were expecting the president to make a more profound statement on the lack of compliance to physical distancing and the delay in the supply of PPE to public basic schools. Unfortunately, we didn’t hear anything like that. We are worried in the sense that almost every stakeholder who is not on the part of the government, within the education space, has indicated and expressed worry without number, the blatant disregard for the safety protocols and then the observation in public basic schools especially physical distancing,” he lamented.

He explained that with schools in cities like Accra numbering over 70 students in a class, it raises huge concerns because of the non-compliance of teachers to introduce the shift systems.

“We have an average class size of about 70 in schools in Greater Accra and in many peri-urban and urban schools across the country. And we have a situation where teachers are resisting attempts to introduce shift systems in these schools because when these attempts are made, they will have to work morning and afternoon without any extra remunerations,” he said.

Speaking with GhanaWeb in a telephone interview, he said the government should do more about this situation.