Teachers and educators in Ghana are urging President Akufo-Addo to extend the four-week shutdown of basic and second-cycle schools to final-year students. This is intended to minimise the spread of COVID-19.

With seven declared cases of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID–19) in Ghana, the government declared, on 21 March, a ban on all public gatherings for the next four weeks. All universities, secondary and primary schools, both private and public, were closed until further notice.

However, final-year students of primary and upper secondary levels have been excluded from the ban and must attend school. They are to observe social distancing protocols as they prepare for their examinations, which begin in May and June 2020, respectively.

Exposed to unnecessary risk

There are currently 397,500 students in the last year of primary school due to undertake the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) in June 2020. An additional 490,882 students are set to complete the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).

Now, education unions in Ghana are calling for these two groups of final-year students to be included in the lockdown measures for schools. Otherwise, the students could be exposed to the unnecessary risk of contracting the COVID-19 disease, according to the unions.

The unions lobbying the Government include three affiliates of Education International (EI): the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), and the Teachers and Educational Workers Union (TEWU). The Coalition of Concerned Teachers, Ghana (CCT-GH) is also amongst those warning of the danger that school attendance implies for the final-year students.

Risk to teachers and support staff

The risk of contagion is not limited to students. “Teachers and other supporting staff who are preparing pupils for the examinations” are also at risk, according to Thomas T. Musah, General Secretary of the GNAT. “Roughly, more than 1,000,000 students, teachers and non-teaching staff will be meeting on a daily basis during the examinations, and that is the basis for our suggestion to the President to consider including the candidates in the shutdown.”

Change exam timetables

Speaking on behalf of the four concerned unions, Musah said that schools should not be “turned into incubation centres for the COVID-19”. The unions have asked the government to suggest a possible change in the examinations timetable for the West African Education Council member states (Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and the Gambia).

Assignments to students

He said that teachers had made homework, exercises, textbooks, and project work available to students. In addition, some teachers had created platforms with parents to give assignments to students to prepare them adequately for the examinations.

Musah commended President Akufo-Addo for the measures taken so far to curb the spread of the virus in the country, citing the $100-million financial commitment by the government as a laudable initiative.

Source: Education International

https://www.ei-ie.org

Published: 23.03.2020

The coronavirus pandemic has exposed stark inequalities in Ghana’s educational system. 

Kwabena Opoku-Agyemang, a lecturer at the University of Ghana, is looking for new ways to carry on teaching his students.

He has no other choice. Ever since Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo ordered last month the indefinite closure of all schools to curb the spread of the new coronavirus, many of the country’s higher educational institutions began exploring options in online learning.

“I plan to use WhatsApp and Zoom to make the classes more interactive,” said Opoku-Agyemang, who teaches literature courses at the Accra-based university’s Department of English. “I will also be having guest artists and guest lecturers join in. The artists will use Instagram Live, while the guest lecturers will probably use Zoom.”

Yet, it won’t be easy. “Stable electricity – we had an extended power cut yesterday; reliable internet; student engagement,” said Opoku-Agyemang, listing some of the challenges threatening the success of the move online.

Stark inequalities

Ghana confirmed its first case of coronavirus on March 12 and has since reported a total of 287 infections and five deaths. In a bid to keep the rapidly spreading virus at bay, the government has announced a series of sweeping measures including banning mass gatherings and shutting down all borders and schools.

But the coronavirus pandemic has revealed the stark regional, social and economic inequalities in Ghana’s educational system.

Closing schools indefinitely has long been the reality for many high school students in northern Ghana, where educational facilities operate with limited infrastructure compared to those in the more affluent south. This has often manifested in high schools’ inability to resume classes on time due to a shortage of teachers, delays in feeding grants and a lack of building facilities which, on occasions, have resulted in children having to study under trees.

Beyond regional disparities, social class has also been a determining factor in the quality of education. Many wealthier Ghanaians send their children to private schools (primary and junior high) given that public schools are often resource poor.

Homeschooling as an alternative

Since the shutdown of schools on March 16, some parents have opted for homeschooling to mitigate the effect on their children’s education. But many are quickly realising that this is not as easy as they anticipated, despite receiving support from schools to facilitate homeschooling

“There are many distractions. Some days she wants to watch TV only,” said Nora Akemson Avicor, an Accra-based parent of a four-year-old girl based in Accra. “Some days I am super busy with the business and we don’t even get time to do anything at all.”

While parents who have formal education can actively manage their children’s learning via homeschooling, this is not an option for those who are not formally educated, especially in the country’s north.

“The shutdown will affect the pupils drastically. Many children will not have the chance to learn while at home,” said a basic school educator in Tamale, northern Ghana. “They think they are on holiday. Even in the community, you see children roaming about and it looks like they don’t even know that they are supposed to stay at home.”

An educator at a junior high school in the Sagnarigu municipality added: “Many of the children only learn at school, they don’t study at home. Since we have been home, if you ask many of the students, they will tell you that they haven’t opened a book. And these are students preparing to write the BECE.”

BECE, or Basic Education Certificate Examination, is the standardised exam junior high school students have to take to get into senior high schools, while WASSCE, or West African Senior School Certificate Examination, is the exam taken by senior high school students to get into universities and colleges. Although the WASSCE has been suspended indefinitely, the Ghana Education Service is currently “in serious discussions” with the West African Examinations Council about the conduct of the BECE.

The Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Prof. Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa, has said it will be disastrous for the government to close down senior high schools (SHSs) and send students back home for fear that they will contract the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Speaking at a press briefing organised by the Ministry of Information to provide an update on the country’s COVID-19 case management situation in Accra yesterday, Prof. Opoku-Amankwa said closing down schools presently was not the right option for the government to consider. 

There have been calls by some parents and political parties for the government to shut down schools in the face of the spread of the virus in schools.

Answering a question on the danger of keeping students in school, the GES boss said: “We believe that the best option is to keep them [students] in school because if we decide to let them go into the bigger society, then we rather have to close down the entire country because if you have a thousand students going into different homes and they are infected, we are not sure of what is going to happen to the larger community." 

 "We are talking about 550,000 students; that is, the Gold Track students plus SHS final-year students, so if we decide to let them all go, I think we will be causing a big disaster to ourselves," he added.

Special arrangement

He explained that the government had put in place measures, including the deployment of the needed resources and logistics, including personal protective equipment (PPE), such as nose masks and hand sanitiser, to ensure the safety of students in the various institutions.

He said most of the students who had been infected by the virus and were currently in isolation were asymptomatic and, therefore, able to engage in studies.

“Originally, the final-year SHS students had two weeks to start their WASSCE, but the President, in his wisdom, said because they had been home for a long time, they should be given more time for revision,” he said.

Prof. Opoku-Amankwa assured parents that students who were unable to write the examination due to poor health would be given the opportunity to register for the same examination at another period at a cost to the government.

“If, for any reason at all, the child is writing the exams and is ill, what the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) does is that it has something called the clemency rule that will be used, so that if you have written English One and cannot write the second paper, it will use the results of the first paper and other factors to award you marks for the second paper,” he explained.

He added that because of all those arrangements, it was not prudent to close down schools under the current circumstances. 

Case count

The country’s positive COVID-19 cases as of yesterday stood at 25,252, according to the Director of Public Health at the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Badu Sarkodie.

Although the number of positive cases had increased, Dr Sarkodie said the number of active cases had significantly reduced over the last few days.

He said there were 3,716 active cases, while figures for recovered and discharged people had risen to 21,391, with 139 deaths.

The new cases were confirmed from 26 districts in six regions.

Govt intervention

The Minister of Information, Mr Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, who answered a question on the government’s strategy to ensure that the rate of infections among the public was reduced, said although the government was determined to protect citizens from getting infected by the virus, the citizens must also take steps to protect themselves.

He said all the safety protocols that had been adopted by the government could not translate into preventing the spread of the virus if citizens failed to comply and act accordingly. 

Parents storm Accra Girls’

Meanwhile, for the second time in two weeks, some frustrated parents went to the Accra Girls’ SHS) yesterday, demanding that the school authorities should allow them to send their children home, reports Jennifer Kwasin

It followed a joint statement by the GHS and the GES late Monday that 55 people in the school had tested positive for the COVID-19.

The statement said: "Accra Girls’ SHS has recorded most cases from the first report to date. As of 13th July, 2020, a total of 314 people (students and staff) from the school had been tested. Out of these, 55 have been confirmed positive for COVID-19, while 259 people tested negative."

 It added that all the infected people had been segregated from other students, while their contacts had been identified and tested.

Resolute

When the Daily Graphic visited the school yesterday morning, a number of parents would not take anything except demand their children.

Dissatisfied with unfolding events, the parents said if the authorities had tested the students and some had come out negative, they should release them, so that their parents send them home to prevent further spread of the virus among the students..

Contrary to what the GES and the GHS were saying, the parents were of the view that the students were not safe because the school had become a hot spot for the virus and unsafe for living.

Parents reiterated the fact that the school authorities were not communicating with them (parents).

Ms Millicent Manu, a parent, said: “We are told by our children that classroom work is no longer in active session, so what are the children still doing in school when the school is no longer safe for them, health wise?”

“If we continue keeping them in school, the spread will increase and the unfortunate may happen to our children,” she added.

Source: Emmanuel Bonney

www.graphic.com.gh

The National Council of Parent-Teacher Associations (NCPTAs) has called on government to as a matter of urgency send home all students and shutdown schools to avert further spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).

The association also want the government to postpone examinations of the final year SHS until further notice.

This was contained in a statement issued and signed by the National President of NCPTAs, Alexander Yaw Danso and copied to the Ghanaian Times yesterday.

According to them, the current circumstances following the increasing number of COVID-19 cases in some Senior High Schools (SHS) did not make it conducive for the students to stay in schools.

"In the current circumstances, the children are psychologically unstable and would therefore, not be of sound mind to write the WASSCE and BECE examinations and come out successfully," he stated.

"We, therefore, suggest that these examinations be postponed till the situation is brought under control," The statement added.

The association further stated that, close observation done indicates that, not all SHS have received the Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) they were promised.

These according to them among other things put the lives of the children into danger hence the need for the government to immediately shutdown all schools.

It, therefore, urged parents to isolate their wards for the 14-day period after they had returned home

"In the event of students sent home, parents are advised to endeavour to isolate and test their children for the 14-day period before integrating them into the larger family for the sake of everybody's safety," the statement added.

The Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) on Monday, donated 35 life jackets valued at GH¢4,000, to basic school teachers in seven island communities in the Keta municipality.

The beneficiary teachers commute daily from their places of residence elsewhere in the municipality to schools in Bomigo, Genui, Fuveme, Hatorgodo, Wenyagor, Lawoshime and Agorviwofe.

The jackets were presented by Mr Thomas Mensah, Head of Membership Education Department of GNAT, Accra, to Mr David Kattah, Volta Regional GNAT Chairman, at the river bank at Tunu, prior to a tour of the islands by the GNAT team.

Mr Mensah said that the safety of teachers in the deprived communities were of paramount concern to the association, adding, “It is only when our teachers feel safe at their duty posts that they can deliver quality education.”

Mr Mensah stated that GNAT would provide more life jackets and other necessities to teachers in the area soon, to boost their performance in the classrooms.

Pursuant to that, he said that the association was looking into the possibility of acquiring a modern vessel on the river, for use exclusively by teachers in the area.

Mr Mensah gave the assurance that GNAT would constantly be in touch with basic schools in deprived communities, and attend to their needs in pursuance of the fourth Sustainable Development Goal.

At Bomigo, the Assistant Headmaster of the E.P. Basic School, Mr James Atideku thanked GNAT for the support, saying the gesture was highly touching.

The jackets, he said, would definitely help to boost the morale of the teachers and enhance their output, saying: “We hope GNAT officials will visit us here regularly to identify our challenges at first hand and assist us accordingly.”

The assistant headmaster appealed to GNAT for sports kits to support extra-curricular activities in the school, stressing, “In spite of the deprivation, we do very well during competitions with other schools, so we will surely get to greater heights when we are supported with the kits.”

FROM ALBERTO MARIO NORETTI, TUNU

Source:ghanaiantimes.com.gh

June 12, 2019

The Ghana National Commission for UNESCO and Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) marked the 2020 edition of the World’s Largest Lesson with a training workshop for selected teachers in the Greater Accra Metropolis.
The World’s Largest Lesson is observed every year to ensure that every child in the world grows up knowing and caring about the Sustainable Development Goals and is inspired to take action to help achieve them. So far it has reached millions of children in over 100 countries.
The full day workshop comprised activities like orientation on the 17 SDGs and practicals on integrating and adapting the resources and Teaching Learning Materials into lessons.

Speaking at the workshop, Mr Palham Oyiye , Research Officer and National Coordinator on Early Childhood expressed GNAT’s appreciation to the Commission for the collaboration and said he looks forward to more of such in the future.
Participants also spoke of their satisfaction with the programme, adding that they will use the learning and resources from the workshop in their teaching.
Pictures of the event can be found in our gallery.

Visit https://worldslargestlesson.globalgoals.org/ to find resources and training materials for educators.

Source: unescoghana.org/worlds-largest-lesson-2020/