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Junior High School students will not spend more than four hours in school per day, the Ghana Education Service (GES) has said.
The comment comes after President Akufo-Addo announced the reopening of schools for final year students in the country.
As part of measures to return lives to normalcy while mitigating the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, President Akufo-Addo on Sunday eased more restrictions earlier imposed on some activities in the country.
The President’s in his 10th address to the nation on measures put in place to check the spread of the coronavirus in the country announced the reopening of schools but for only final year students of Junior High School, Senior High School and Tertiary institutions.
According to him, beginning 15th June final year students are to resume school starting with University students.
“SHS 2 gold track and SHS 3 students are to resume on the 22nd of June, with a maximum of 25 students and final year Junior High School students are to resume on the 29th of June with a maximum of 30 students, while remaining students still remain at home,” President Akufo-Addo said.
Providing more clarification on the directive, Deputy Direct-General for Quality and Access for the Ghana Education Service Mr. Kwabena Bempah Tandoh stated that Junior High School students will not be spending more than four hours in school per day.
“In our JHS, what we are saying is that they will only be in school for only 4 hours a day; they start at 9 and complete at 1. This is because of the health and well-being checks at hand,” he said.
He added that the decision was taken based on stakeholder consutations.
“This is an area where we’ve had a lot of consultations. We have had consultations with the Conference of Heads of Assitant Senior High Schools (CHASS), we’ve consulted with Headmasters of Basic Schools, we’ve consulted with our regional and district directors of education and other stakeholders and even CSOs and we have also inflicted on evidence in terms of what is happening elsewhere,” Mr. Tandoh told Samson Anyenini on Newsfile on Saturday.
“And we came to the conclusion that final year students should resume and take their exit exam while adhering to all the appropriate measures,” he added.
He said every student will be supplied with three washable and reusable face masks.
Also, all teaching and non-teaching staff must come to school will also be supplied with the same, three reusable face masks.
“Every single school; public and private, will be given at least the minimum of what has been prescribed by the scientists.
“That is; handwashing facilities, we are going to provide Veronica buckets, sanitizers, and water to all schools even to those that have problems with water supply,” he added.
