The Ministry of Education says there are no immediate plans to reopen schools from next month for full academic activities.
Consequently, it has called on the public to ignore reports to that effect.
“The ministry will like to state categorically that aside from final-year students who are in school, the public should disregard reports going round that all other students would go to school in September,” the Chief Director of the Ministry of Education (MoE), Mr Benjamin K. Gyasi, said in Accra yesterday.
Position
Speaking at the National Inspectorate Board (NIB) School Establishment and Inspection Policy (SEaIP) Validation Workshop, Mr Gyasi said that the report was a rumour and not the position of the ministry, adding, “When we get to the bridge we will cross it but we are not there yet. Once we get there, there will be a presidential directive after which the ministry will make the arrangements. But it is not true that we are going to school in September 2020.”
Schools in the country were closed on March 16, this year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, final-year senior high and junior high school students were asked to go back to school to prepare for this year’s West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) and the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE).
Second-year Gold Track students were also sent back to school to complete their first semester academic work.
Validation workshop
The validation workshop was attended by managers of educational establishments in the country. It, among other things, aimed at getting their inputs into the policy which is in its final stage of development.
Mr Gyasi noted that the workshop was a follow-up to the series of workshops the NIB had started which would lead to the finalisation of the school establishment and inspection policy.
The event was to provide an opportunity for the participants to look at the draft policy that had been developed to that effect.
The NIB’s mandate, he said, was contained in two main documents: the Education Act of 2008 (Act 778) and the Revised Handbook for the Inspection of Public and Private Pre-tertiary Schools in Ghana (2018 and 2019), and that it was those documents that had guided the operations of the NIB to date.
“But where we are getting to now, we need further legislative mandate and support for NIB to ensure the effective discharge of its mandate. For this reason, since March 2020, we have identified some key policies to be developed to ensure effective and efficient discharge of the mandate of NIB, still based on Education Act of 2008 (Act778) and the Education Regulatory Bodies Bill which has gone full cycle through the parliamentary process and awaiting presidential assent,” he said.
Policy
The MoE chief director said the school establishment and inspection policy about which the workshop was held sought to outline the legal requirements that schools needed to satisfy before they could establish themselves as educational facilities in the country.
In addition, the policy will set out NIB processes and procedures in undertaking school inspection and serve as a guide for schools’ self-evaluation towards improving learning outcomes, Mr Gyasi stated.
“This draft policy has gone through a series of technical reviews and consultative workshops where the NIB’s major stakeholders have perused the document to ensure that it is consistent with NIB’s operations and that of the stakeholders that the NIB works with,” he stated.
He encouraged the participants to feel free and critique the document and make inputs “so that at the end of the day, you can own the document yourself.”
Prioritise foundation education
The Deputy Greater Accra Regional Minister, Mrs Elizabeth Sackey, said there was the need to prioritise education for children to develop themselves physically, mentally and socially.
She said it was for such reasons that the government was investing so much in education so that every child of school age would have access to it, irrespective of the social standing of their parents.
“You would agree with me that for the education system to work well, we need a functional school establishment inspectorate to ensure compliance with rules and regulations,” she said.
Source: Graphic Online
alright…… thats good initiative
This is good news
This is bad. This coronavirus has come to stay so life must go on. Schools must be reopen. Just put down some effective measures but schools must reopen.
It will even be better if school reopens next year so that we will be physically and mentally prepared
Wat is guud in dis
KTU said we are reporting to school on the 24 of August
Why slow down or change our education system because of Corona, I get the fact that Corona is something serious I’m not underestimating that but we shouldn’t forget that we are not the only country affected by the disease. Most countries have reopened schools. It’s time to step on Corona. a lot of measures have already be put in place .The use of the mask , hand sanitizer , Social etc. and I trust the education ministry is still trying to do more and we the students really appreciate that fact and our hope to go to school is September was higher until we saw the new information. We shouldn’t forget parents are facing a lot of financial problems during this period so we going back to school and allowing them to go back to their work will really help them a lot. Even idleness alone can kill. As we already know people with strong immune systems are not gonna let the disease break them down, we students are young and strong too, we will take care if ourselves all we need is your trust and counselling . The fear the citizens had of Covid-19 the past 3 month has faded away completely. We all know it’s not the same. The number passengers in taxis is now 5 including the driver. So it’s better if we get to know the reasons why we can’t go to school now because we’re always left in suspense. The more we stay home the more some students loose interest in schooling. Our Dear President despite his age fought Corona and trust me we Students were really happy and proud. This grew our hope. We are young and strong, we can fight this disease. Yes someone will say what about our mates with some disorders, Oh no! we won’t put them in danger never will we. Those few people could even do theirs online besides talk about the tertiary, the lecturers are going to do the talking and students the listening so anyone with questions could just forward the question in the class group so as the lecturer sees it , he replies.
Please Thank you at least for giving me the opportunity to say something and I hope my words were not offensive too.
What good does this make?Suitable measures must be put in place so schools can reopen, We appreciate the efforts the Government and respective authorities are making but Schools should reopen,at least Tertiary institutions even if it means reducing the class size. This online studies is tedious and not a true reflection of academic work.How about students with poor access to networks and other important educational requirements. Please let us go back to school,Other countries are moving on with their lives.Please reconsider this decisions ,and ensure students go by all Protocols.
I agree with Marie’s post.Absolutely true
This is not the Best, truth be told .Staying home is not helping we the students at all.And we hope our views too are taken into consideration. We can Do this Ghana!!😊👌,thanks
Please reopen school for us especially the tertiary students this online learning is not helping us Mr. President please let’s go back to school because COVID 19 has come to stay
I think resuming school next year will be the best thing to do