We were not consulted before the reopening of schools - NAGRAT

President of the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), Mr. Eric Angel Carbonu, has disclosed that the Association was not consulted before the decision to reopen schools for Senior High School 2 students and Junior High School 2 students.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, in his 16th address on COVID-19 updates yesterday, announced that the Ghana Education Service in consultation with relevant stakeholders has taken the decision for these continuing students to return to school from October 5th to December 14th.

Commenting on this decision, however, Mr. Carbonu told Samuel Eshun on the Happy Morning Show, “We were not involved at the consultative level.

Well, when the coronavirus came and the whole state was apprehensive and the numbers were rising, the teacher unions called on the government to shut down the schools. The government closed down the schools. I don’t think the government closed the schools only because of the teachers union but the fact of the matter is that the teachers contributed.

Our inputs were not sought so we cannot say whether the timing was correct or not”.

He was of the view that since teachers and management of schools are the ones who will handle the situation if schools are reopened, it would have been much appreciated if teachers were consulted before such a decision was taken.

He added that teachers are however supportive of the government’s decision. “A date was announced so the teachers will be there to work on that day”, he said

Ghana closed its schools on March 15, 2020, as part of the country’s lockdown to address the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Sunday, 31 May 2020, however, the President announced that final-year university students were to report to their universities on 15th June, final-year senior high school students, together with senior high school 2 Gold Track students, on 22nd June; and final-year junior high school students on 29th June.

The government has also announced the reopening of schools for SHS 2 and JHS 2 students in October.