The President of the Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools(CHASS), Yacoub Abubakar, has disclosed that reopening of schools for SHS students have been rescheduled to avert congestion.

According to him, the current plight occasioned by the pandemic does not encourage such congestion to take place.

“We drew the attention of the Ghana Education Service (GES) management; that given the numbers that we have in the school and with the break that we were going to attend. We suggested that they should let one batch of Form 1 students stay at home; so that all the form 3s could come to school.

“The Form 2 gold [track] will also be in school and a portion of the form 1s that we can contain in the school given the numbers that we currently have at our respective schools”.

Mr. Abubakar further indicated that alternatively GES should “shift the reopening date of Form 3s” to the currently announced date.

Additionally, he explained that this is to enable schools contain all first year students.

“That way we could have the students in school; and be able to observe the Covid-19 protocols because the congestion would not have been a serious issue with us.”

GES reschedules final year students reopening date

The Ghana Education Service on Tuesday, 06 April 2021, announced May 5 as the reopening date for final year students.

In a Facebook post, it noted that management arrived at the decision after considering a proposal from CHASS.

“This applies to all Form 3 students (single track and double track schools)… All other arrangements on the calendar remain unchanged.”

Some students and parents have, however, expressed frustration over the development and the late announcement of the latest directive.

The form 3 students should have reported to school today April 6, 2021 through to 28th May 2021. They were then to have gone on Vacation from 28th May to 29th June 2021.

That notwithstanding, GES revealed that with the current arrangement, “when the final year students report on 5th May 2021, they will be in school until they write their WASSCE”.

“Management of GES, therefore, considers this, as a better option; where the students will not break their instructional period and have their full 1,080 hours needed prior to the final examination.”

Postponed date of first years to expedite placement process

On March 7, 2021 GES postponed the reopening of first-year Senior High School students to Thursday, March 18.

The Deputy Director-General in a statement release indicated that the action was to give students who have had issues with self-placement ample time to complete the process.

The Service added that the rescheduling will also help parents have adequate time to prepare their kids for school as well as give schools additional time needed to prepare to welcome them.

“The spread-out period is to enable the schools to structure the admission process in such a way that not too many students get crowded at the school at one particular point in time.”