Deputy Education Minister, Dr. Yaw Adutwum, has stressed the need to avoid a backlog of students in schools even as COVID-19 has disrupted academic activities and calendars.
He made this point as he rises to the defence of the government’s insistence that Ghanaian students must hold the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) and the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) this year.
About 400,000 final year Senior High School (SHS) students returned to school on June 22 and since then, at least 110 COVID-19 cases in 34 schools have been so far recorded.
Despite the concerns raised regarding the increased COVID-19 infection, Dr. Adutwum stressed that “the government is not taking this lightly.”
These concerns have prompted the government to set up a committee to monitor the COVID-19 situation in Senior High Schools.
The Deputy Minister also noted that a backlog of students at various educational levels needed to be avoided so that planning for the sector is not altered.
“The government has to grapple with getting the final years at various levels to move on so we can create space at the lower ranks for another group to come in.”
“Without getting the JHS 3 students to move on, you cannot even plan towards the basic school because the kindergarten students are going to be waiting to get in.”
Dr. Adutwum added that the “same thing applies to the universities where you need to have first-year students.”
“It is almost like you are removing this group so you can prevent clogging so you can even think about KG going to school otherwise there will be no KG 1. Others will be backlogged behind the gate and that will make the whole planning process very complicated,” he explained.
Earlier calls for schools to remain closed
Meanwhile, earlier in a televised interview on April 29, 2020, Dr Adutwum noted that reopening of schools should be delayed a little longer to ensure the safety of students amid COVID-19.
This was after some schools in other countries around the world began returning to school after the outbreak of the virus.
According to the Deputy Education Minister, the closure was a safety measure devised by the government to prevent the virus spread in schools and should be in force until scientific data suggests otherwise.
Ghana’s Case count
As of today, Thursday, July 16, 2020, Ghana’s COVID-19 case rose to 26,125 after 695 new cases were confirmed, with total recoveries at 22,270. The death toll stands at 139 leaving behind 3,716 active cases.
