The Ghana Education Service (GES) has said it consulted stakeholders including the Ghana National Association of Private Schools (GNAPS) on the decision to reopen schools on October 5, 2020 for JHS 2 and SHS2 students and postpone the academic year for students of Kindergarten to JHS one to January next year.
According to the Deputy Director-General of GES, Anthony Boateng, the decision was taken after consultations with the committee that has been setup by the government to advice on the reopening of schools which has representative from GNAPS.
He therefore dismissed claims by GNAPS that it was not consulted on the decision to reopen schools in October this year and the postponement of the academic calendar for Kindergarten, Nursery, Primary, JHS1 and SHS 1 students to January next year.
In his 16th address to the nation on measures taken to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic, president Akufo-Addo announced that the GES after consultation with relevant stakeholders has decided on 5th October as reopening date of schools for JHS 2 and SHS 2 students. He added that the GES through its consultations with the stakeholders further decided to postpone the remainder of the academic to January next year.
However, the Ghana National Association of Private Schools (GNAPS) has expressed its discontent with the decision to delay the reopening of schools until next year when the committee setup by the education minister had not completed its work to consider the suggestions of stakeholders.
GNAPS contended that it has not been consulted because the committee gave it up to September 3 to submit its input which it is yet to submit.
“I will say that the issue of schools reopening in January was taken in a consultative approach including GNAPS. I have said they (GNAPS members) should talk to their representative on the committee whether or not this issue of January had been discussed at the committee level. I’m emphasizing that certain fundamental decisions were to be made. The nitty-gritty of those decisions were what the committee was supposed to advice on,” the Deputy Director-General of GES stated.
President of GNAPS bemoaned the impact the delayed reopening of schools would have on private schools and their staff. He said they had prepared for the resumption of schools in September or October arguing that the school environment was safer in protecting children from contracting coronavirus than home especially when parents leave them for work.
But reacting to the concerns of GNAPS, Mr. Boateng insisted that the representative of GNAPS on the committee was informed of the decision to suspend the academic calendar.
On why the decision to delay the reopening till January was taken when the committee had not concluded its work, the Deputy Director-General of GES asserted that the committee was setup to recommend on the details of the reopening following a decision which had already been taken to suspend the academic year till next year.
