News:
July 13, 2020
Deputy Ranking Member on the Committee for Education, Dr. Clement Abas Apaak is advocating for the postponement of this year’s Basic Certificate Examination (BECE) and the West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) in the light of COVID-19 spread in some senior high schools (SHS) across the country.
According to him Kenya and Nigeria have postponed examination of final year students of secondary schools to next year.
He noted that government held consultations with stake holders who were not in favour of reopening of SHS and JHS because of the outbreak of COVID-19, but the government gave assurance of putting measures in place to ensure there is no spread of the disease.
“Government promise to fumigate the various campuses, provide PPEs, sanitizers, veronica buckets, running water and thermometer guns and medical persons attached, unfortunately most of these things have not been met, some schools had their PPEs just this week”.
And added that at the various campus there are issues of schools recording positive COVID-19 cases. The media has not heard of it because students’ mobile phones have been taken away, how do they report when one is infected, and questioned if students can be in the right frame of mind to write their final exams with some of their colleague testing positive and they do not know who had the disease.
“Why are we keeping students on campus to write their exams, when cabinet of the President Akufo-Addo administration has suspended on suspicion that the virus is present among high government officials”.
Dr. Apaak said comments made by the Health Minister Kwaku Agyeman Manu indicates that government has lost the fight against COVID-19 and added that government should be held accountable because it has the responsibility to ensure that the safety of Ghanaians is guaranteed.
Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com