The District Chief Executive(DCE) for the Sekyere Kumawu District of the Ashanti Region has, as a result of breaches of COVID-19 protocols, shutdown Dwenti Senior High School.
Members of the school authorities have also been apprehended for not adhering to the safety measures put in place by the government to help curb the spread of the deadly COVID-19.
Samuel Agyei Agyekum, the DCE for the area, on a monitoring exercise with the COVID-19 Response Team on Saturday, July 11, 2020, ordered for the cessation of all school activities and the arrest of school authorities.
He took these actions based on the school authorities’ disregard for the government’s directives to ensure that dormitories and classroom activities should be scheduled to avoid overcrowding.
According to the DCE, this decision was taken to ensure that students did not contract the virus as he claimed preparations were underway to secure extra accommodation to reduce congestion in dormitories.
On the other hand, the National Council of Parent-Teacher Associations (NCPTAs) following reports that positive cases have been recorded in some schools has appealed to the government to close down all senior high schools.
So far, 14 senior high schools have reportedly recorded COVID-19 cases with fears of further spread on an all-time high.
These schools include Accra Girls’ Senior High School, Odorgonno SHS, Konongo Wesley SHS, and Mfantsiman Girls’ SHS.
Also, Mawuli School, Bishop Herman College in Kpando, Dabala Technical School, and Mawuko Girls SHS in the Volta Region have all recorded COVID-19 cases.
The list includes Archbishop Porter Girls, Ahantaman Girls, Adiembra SHS, and Diebene SHS all in the Takoradi Metropolis.
The rest are Suhum Senior Technical School (STHS) in the Eastern Region and Nsein Senior High School in the Nzema East District.
The NCPTA issued a statement on Monday, July 13, 2020, to address the COVID-19 situation in our Senior High Schools.
The statement articulated that upon monitoring the NCPTA has discovered that since schools reopened in June, not all schools had received the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) as promised by the government and the supplies that have been dispatched are not enough.
Besides, most students were not adhering to social distancing or wearing face masks. Furthermore, the NCPTA stated that there were limited health personnel stationed at schools and that there was a lack of space to accommodate day and boarding students together hence the congestion in some schools.
Per the statement, attempts to encourage parents to be calm have failed as they are requesting for their wards to return home to avoid contracting the disease.
Also, the communique expressed that students were not in the right frame of mind to sit for the WASSCE and BECE due to the current circumstances.
Prominent among the concerns raised by the PTA was the fact that the voter’s registration process also compromises the safety of students as people from the outside would be allowed entry into schools.
