GES distributes 10 million facemasks to schools

The Ghana Education Service (GES) has distributed 10 million facemasks to schools, with each student entitled to two reusable masks per semester.

It also distributed 9.9 million hand sanitizers, 1.65 million packs of tissue papers, 38,000 thermometer guns, and 300,000 face shields and some Veronica buckets.

The GES said it would replenish the personal protective equipment (PPE) next month to avoid any shortage.

Professor Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa, the Director-General of the GES, at a media engagement in Accra, said a monitoring team comprising personnel from the Ghana Health Service and the GES would, next week, embark on monitoring exercises in schools across the country to evaluate the level of compliance with the COVID-19 safety protocols.

It would also analyse progress made in managing class-sizes and report the situation accordingly.

Prof. Opoku-Amankwa reiterated the need for heads of schools and managers to comply with the instructional hours issued by the Service.

The instructional hours are four hours for Kindergarten pupils, six hours for primary and junior high students, and seven to eight hours for senior high students.

The GES Boss urged school heads and managers to enforce the COVID-19 preventive and safety protocols in their schools to avert any spread of the virus.

So far, four students had contracted the virus since schools reopened on January 15, this year.

Three were from a secondary school in the Upper West Region and one student in Daboase in the Western Region.

A total of 34 contacts of the infected students had been traced and only one person also tested positive for COVID-19.

Prof. Opoku-Amankwa said 9.2 million students and 500,000 educational workers were affected when schools closed in March last year.

He said when school reopened in January this year the GES had issued COVID-19 and Recovery Guidelines to schools for the reintegration of pupils and students after a nine-month break.

It also embarked on a “Back-to-School” campaign to educate and sensitise both parents and students to resume classes.

Prof. Opoku-Amankwa refuted claims of lack of space in schools for new admissions, noting that there were sufficient classrooms to enrol more than 6,000 new pupils into creche and nursery.