HEADACHE & ANXIETY: RE-OPENING OF SCHOOLS IN THE MIDST OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC

(Article by Sir Charles Freeman)

Countries, governments, parents, and other stakeholders in education are thinking about how to re-open schools globally so that children can go to school. Ghana's circumstances is not different. As COVID-19 has put human beings, ideas, resources, and almost all things at abnormal position; out of  try and error method, we can move from this abnormal situation to the normal if all ideas and suggestions are critically looked at regardless of where it is coming from.

 In this article, I intend to draw attention to some challenges of school re-open and use leading questions which can compel us to think further to arrive at possible solutions.

The fact that we are in dilemma and not in normal times does not mean country like Ghana should rush and take decisions or copy from other countries blindly without assessing its own perculiar situation, ability, capability, material and human resources, environment and culture.

Do we have to re-open our schools now or wait for a while? Before saying yes or no, let us begin with asking leading questions.

 To start with, are we going to test all these school children and their nuclear families before sending them to school? Are we going to test our teachers, non-teaching staff and their nuclear families as well? Do we have the data or number of these populations from Nursery, KG, Primary, JHS, SHS and so on in addition to the population of their nuclear family? Do we know the population of our teachers, non-teaching staff and their nuclear families minus the intersections? These questions are relevant because first, testing is one of the requirement for fighting the pandemic according to World Health Organization(WHO) and our schools are places for social activities. Denying children of their social activities is highly difficult task for parents and teachers. Without testing before children meet their classmates and teachers, think about what will happen.

Aside testing of the above key stakeholders in education, are we ready and capable of providing each child, teaching and non-teaching staff with hand sanitizers? Besides, are we ready and capable of providing all schools with Veronica Buckets with adequate and uninterrupted water supply for hand washing all the time?. In addition, can the government provide each child, teacher and non-teaching staff nose masks for protection?

Aside testing, provision of hand sanitizers and apparatus for hand washing and face masks, it may interest you to know that before the advent of COVID-19, the environments of many schools in our country Ghana were nothing good to write home about. How are we going to keep the environments of these schools clean and neat periodically? Can we stick to fumigating schools in the country periodically?

Another area of critical concern is transportation system. In Ghana, majority of our private and some government schools convey their students to and from schools. They bus these children and pack them like sardines without social distancing. Are these schools  ready to adhere to protocols of social distancing? Is the state going to ensure this? If yes, how? Besides, majority of young school children including nursery, KG, Primary and so on commute to and from school far from home without supervision of their parents. How are we going to manage and supervise these groups because just one infection means infection of other classmates.

Another important challenge we have in our schools is the overcrowding in our classrooms. In the majority of our schools, you can count at least fifty(50) children in one classroom being managed by at most three(3) classroom teachers at primary level. And at JHS and SHS, the subject teacher combines classroom management with teaching and marking. If we could not enforce social distancing among just four children under our supervision as father and mother during the lockdown, how can these very few teachers do that in over-crowded classrooms, combined with teaching and marking simultaneously?

 Not only that, poor ventilation in classrooms is another challenge. How can we improve ventilation system in these overcrowded classroom to avoid the spread of COVID-19?

As a country, can we solve this (overcrowding) issue by using Double or triple Track System? If that is possible, do we have teachers to take care of it? Can we draw any lesson from the current Double Track System at SHS level? How can we expand our school infrastructure as a long term measure to deal with challenges associated with overcrowding in case COVID-19 is not ready to leave us now?

I think, when lifting the restrictions in Ghana, the one on re-open of schools should be the last consideration and carefully thought through. Even with that, I suggest that it should be gradual starting from the Tertiary Level, i.e. those who are matured enough to give us the fair idea as to where challenges are so that we can iron out those ones and improve our measures. When measures put in place Work Well after thorough assessment, then we can introduce the JHS 3 and SHS 3 students and do periodic assessment to check What is Working Well and What is not Working Well. From that, we can build confidence enough to reopen other schools making the Nursery, KG and Primary schools be the last

 However, we should bear in mind that re-opening schools in gradual basis could also produce some progression challenges which needs to be noted and addressed. That is, for example; there will be a gap between levels depending on number of days/weeks/months that one level will be introduced (i.e. reo-pen). For example, if SHS is re-opened four weeks before JHS 3 follow, there will be a gap of four weeks for JHS 3 to catch up with academic calendar. 

In conclusion, before we re-open schools in Ghana, I think school children and their nuclear families; teachers, non-teaching staff and their nuclear families should be tested. Also, government should provide school children and their teaching and non-teaching staff hand sanitizers and face masks. Also, Veronica Buckets and adequate uninterrupted water supply should be available to every school. Moreso, there should be a strict adherence of social distancing protocols in schools and  in school buses. Furthermore, schools can be operated under Double or Triple Track System to avoid overcrowding. Lastly, there should be enough classroom ventilation, periodic fumigation and practice of environmental hygiene in schools.

Writer's Details

Name: Sir Charles Freeman

Email: baducharles111@gmail.com

Phone Number: +233 (0)542566337