The President of the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), Angel Carbonu says teachers in Senior High Schools nationwide continue to live in fear panic over contracting the novel coronavirus.
When asked about the role teachers will play in the Ghana Education Service’s (GES) recent directive that all SHS final year students are to observe the mid-term break on campus, Mr Carbonu, stated grievances expressed by teachers before the reopening of schools have not been addressed.
“You have your teachers on the ground, do you feel adequately protected because you are staying in and you must be provided with PPEs. Are you protected?” the host of Top Story, Evans Mensah asked.
Mr Carbonu replied stating: “the apprehension that we went to school with are still there because this virus is something you don’t see coming for you to take a precaution but the general precaution that society is advised to take, the observance of the various protocols are what people are doing.”
Speaking on Joy FM on Monday, Mr Carbonu described as necessary the initiative taken by the GES after consultations with the Ghana Health Service to camp the students in order to curb the spread of the new strain of the Covid-19 variant.
He, however, questioned if the measures put in place will be effective to prevent further spread since teachers and day students will have to commute from their respective places.
Mr Carbonu also demanded that all information on Covid-19 cases recorded in schools be made available.
“There are schools that have about 60 per cent borders and 40 per cent day students. There are certain schools that the day students are more than the borders and then day students move to and from home on daily basis.
“We will want to know the true picture of the Covid-19 situation in schools. The majority of teachers are not on campuses, they come to school in trotro, taxi and so on and so forth. All that we are doing I think is to manage the situation but I doubt whether we are capable of surmounting the situation in absolute terms,” he stated.
But according to GES Deputy Director-General, Dr Kwabena B. Tandoh on the show, day students will stay home until academic work resumes after the midterm break next week.
“Because it is midterm, day students will stay home during that midterm break and they will return next week Monday when academic work begins again.
“The idea of Mid-semester break is not necessarily even for students to go home but to get a break from the regular day to day rigour of academic work and to rest and so we are still observing that mid-semester break but we are observing it within the context of the directives by the Ghana Health Service in order not to aggravate the situation that is already in the country.”
Source: Ghana News
