Weeds takeover basic schools in Western Region

Weeds have now taken over the compounds of some basic schools in the Western Region following the long closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Meanwhile, some of the school blocks have developed serious cracks on them.

With barely a week to the reopening, the situation in some schools visited by the Ghana News Agency showed no sign of readiness for school activities to resume as classrooms were still locked with rodents and debris and the compounds left unkempt.

Many of the schools that have some ongoing projects had stalled with the structures and some of the building materials left at the mercy of the weather while leftover materials have been covered up by weeds.

Some of the schools visited include the Methodist Cluster at Agona in the Ahanta West Municipality which was a Polling Center for the recent general elections, Anaji MA Basic School and Effiakuma Methodist Primary and JHS in the Effia-Kwesimintsim Municipality.

Others are Bedu-Addo Methodist Primary and JHS, Woode Methodist Primary, Wiawso Road Key Primary, Bishop Essuan Primary and JHS, St John Paul School and the Cluster of Schools near the Bompeh Senior High School all in the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis.

School parks which hitherto were used by members in the communities for training and other activities like funerals and durbars were no more whereas churches which had their services in the classrooms can no longer do so due to a ban on using the facilities, leaving the fields bushy and the classrooms untidy respectively.

Many schools visited had their classrooms filled with cobwebs, rodents and fecal matter as well as reptiles like wall geckos and lizards.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to infections and deaths around the world, and in Ghana as schools switched from holding in-person classes to virtual learning.

The President announced the indefinite closure of all schools, effective Monday, March 16, and with a ban on mass gathering as part of the COVID-19 containment measures.

President Akufo-Addo in his address to the nation on 3rd January 2021, to provide an update on COVID-19 pandemic, announced the reopening for all public and private basic schools, junior high, senior high and tertiary institutions across the country beginning from this month January.

Reopening for children in kindergarten, primary and junior high, in both private and public schools, will be back in school, while all SHS 1 students will start classes from 10th March, with all students embarking on a single-track academic calendar.

SHS 2 and SHS 3 will, however, return to school from 18th January.

Meanwhile, SHS 3 students in all schools will no longer run the double-track system due to the expansion of infrastructure at the various senior high schools, over the last three years.