Sissala East: Basic schools reopen with little regard for coronavirus safety protocols

Correspondence from Upper West Region

All basic schools in the Sissala East Municipality have reopened but with little regard for COVID-19 protocols.

Visits by GhanaWeb to some schools showed observance of the COVID-19 safety measures was generally low despite public announcements informing pupils and parents to, especially, wear nose masks when reporting back to school.

Some schools visited were: Egala Basic, St. Gabriel Basic and TUTCO Demonstration Basic schools as well as Grace Provider Academy in the Sissala East Municipal capital in Tumu.

The Basic schools were reopening following a directive from the Ghana Education Service (GES) that all Basic Schools both public and private were to resume on January 18, 2021.

Meanwhile, general clean-up exercises including sweeping of classrooms, weeding, hand-picking and burning of disposal materials, were some of the major activities been carried out across most of the schools visited by GhanaWeb.

In an interview with the Headteacher of TUTCO Demonstration Basic School, Mr. Kassim File Dangor he told GhanaWeb that the number of pupils reported as of 9:25 am was encouraging and that some students started reporting to school as early as 6:30 am.

Despite providing a Veronica bucket, he bemoaned the school has a challenge of accessing portable water for the pupils to wash their hands.

But checks by GhanaWeb revealed that few of the pupils were in nose masks.

Also, a visit to Grace Provider Academy, Private Basic School revealed that some pupils were in nose masks.

The school had also provided two polytanks with water and soap for hand-washing as well as taking the temperatures of pupils' and parents' among others.