COVID-19 In Schools: Keeping students in schools is the best option – GES

The Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Professor Kwasi Opoku Amankwa, has dismissed calls for senior high schools to be closed down due to increasing cases of COVID-19.

Speaking at the weekly press conference on Tuesday, Prof. Opoku Amankwa said keeping the students in schools is the best option.

Fifty-five (55) students and staff at the Accra Girls’ Senior High School have tested positive for COVID-19, a joint statement by the Ghana Education Service and the Ghana Health Service confirmed.

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The School is among the list of schools that have recorded cases of the virus two weeks after the government reopened schools for final year students.

A section of the public has increased the calls for the schools to be shut down to protect students. On Monday, the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) also called on the government to value the lives of the students and shut down schools with immediate effect.

But according to Prof. Opoku Amankwa, health experts have advised against sending the over 250, 000 students’ home since that could lead to an exponential increase in cases.

“Closure of schools from the health point is not the best option, it is best we keep them in schools because if we decide to let them go home then we might as well close down the whole country…from what we have been told they are asymptomatic, so they are able to go about their studies.”

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Prof. Opoku Amankwah added that “we are hoping that when they get to the exam time because we have two or three weeks before they write exams, all issues will subside…but sending them home will be disastrous.”

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