Former National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) President Emmanuel Kwame Alovi, has expressed concern about plans to reopen schools in the wake of President Akufo-Addo’s announcement that schools are to reopen this month.
His concern is why should the gold track of SHS 2 students have to reopen along with the final year SHS students if we are to observe the social distancing protocols. To him this is going to compound the problem of space in the dining halls and already choked dormitories.
Mr. Alovi says government must have a mandatory testing of all teachers, students and non teaching staff before any intended reopening of schools since this has also been emphasised by many educationists.
The former NAGRAT President who was speaking on Ahotor FM’s evening political show dubbed Asem Yi Di Ka with Emmanuel Martey aka Alaska, indicated that the reason given by the Minister of Information as to why the tests may not possible is untenable.
Mr. Alovi is of the view that if the tests are deemed to be too expensive by the government, then government is not valuing the lives of the teachers and students enough.
Moreover, he says, students and teachers are from all over the country , including those from the epicenters of the corona virus. He therefore asked that if they are converging on the schools without pretesting, and students are later discovered to have the virus how do they benefit from lessons if they are to go into quarantine.
The same goes for the teachers who if they do not undergo pretesting and later are found out to be carrying the virus and must go into quarantine then the classes they teach would become vacant. He was therefore emphatic that there is the need for teachers and students to undergo testing before the reopening .
He also commented on the wearing of nose masks. He believes most students can not wear reusable masks from 7 am when they arrive in school or class till 3 or 5 pm when they close and journey back home after school and still keep these masks clean to be worn the following day. He added that some of these locally made masks are really suffocating. He also expressed his concern for the JHS pupils who would play during break time and wondered how well can they keep their masks.
He also questioned the practicality of teachers being in masks for 8 to 10 hours each day since it will be difficult for most teachers to teach for longer periods in the reusable face masks.
Another cause of worry for Mr. Alovi is some of the pupils and students who are suffering from respiratory illnesses like asthma. For these students, he feels they will either not wear them properly or abandon them completely.
He finally asked if a contingency budget has been made to cater for their feeding and other expenses without becoming a problem to school heads.
Bernice Elorm Kutsoake
