COVID-19: Questions stakeholders in Ghana must answer before reopening schools
Thought-provoking questions to answer before opening schools in this era of the Covid-19 pandemic require thinking, planning, and resource allocation. These questions demand that stakeholders such as government, teachers, the GES, MoE, parents, and schools among others consider these questions, find solutions to them before thinking of reopening our schools. If we do not have answers to these COVID-19 QUESTIONS, we will have our learning staying home for a long time.
QUESTIONS FOR TEACHERS
I. How safe am I if schools are opened?
2. Are students books safe to mark?
3. Do I get free medication if I get COVID-19 at work ?
4. Will my family be compensated if I die after getting COVID-19 at school?
5. Will I get risk allowances when schools re-open ?
6. Will I be able to teach 6 x 35 minutes periods in a day in a mask?
7. I have other health conditions that might affect me in this COVID-19 pandemic and am supposed to teach my class in musk . How do I go about it?
QUESTIONS FOR SCHOOLS
1. If a student in class shows COVID-19 symptoms after lunch during learning . Do we also quarantine the teachers , the whole class or the whole school ( writing classes)?
2. How frequent do we test temperature of teachers and students?
3. If given 1 machine to test temperature. Is it possible to test 20x 4 classes before lessons?
4. Who Will test temperature of the students ? Teachers are not paid for that.
5. Is the teaching and learning going to continue if we run out of sanitizer?
6. If the teacher is in self-quarantine, who will take his/her load?
QUESTIONS FOR RESPONSIBLE AUTHORITY/GOVT.
1. Are all schools having enough desks to maintain social distance?
2. Are you able to employ more teachers since the teacher to pupil ratio decreases? How many teachers are needed per school in each department per subject?
3. Am I going to provide protective gear to all teachers and students in school?
4. Will students in boarding schools wear face masks to bed in the dormitories, to the dining halls, Library, and bathhouses ?
5. Is the government and the MoE ready to invest in PPEs for teachers and pupils for daily supplies?
QUESTIONS FOR PARENTS
1. Is my child not going to bring COVID-19 home?
2. How safe is my child if schools open?
3. Is education the first priority than the life of your child?
FOR STUDENTS
1. Will I be able to comply with all the WHO protocols in the school environment?
2. Can I comfortably seat a 2-3 hour exams in a face mask?
READ: BECE/WASSCE 2020: How to pick your questions in the exams
We need science and realistic answers to all the above questions
Please and again two students can sit on a chair for the paper today but when he or she comes to the hall for the next paper then you will see students changing the chair and due to this if a person has the virus haven’t he transmitted the virus to another .