An administrator and teacher of a private school which requests to remain anonymous, Nana Atakora Amanianpong, has asserted that if schools are reopened whilst the COVID-19 cases in Ghana keep rising, private schools can suffer the most.
According to him, should there be any misfortune of a private school recording a COVID-19 case when schools are reopened, that could be the end of the school.
The administrator shared his fear with Happy 98.9 FM’s Samuel Eshun in an interview on the Happy Morning Show. “It is a delicate situation when it comes to the reopening of schools. If a child happens to get infected with COVID-19 in any private school, it can lead to the collapse of that institution.”
He noted that regardless of the number of elites or literates in the country, most Ghanaians still discriminate and are stereotypical towards people and things they have little understanding of.
Explaining his earlier stance, he added that, if a child gets infected with the virus in a school and the information gets out there, not only will parents withdraw their kids from the school. But they will tell other people and this can lead to long years of discrimination of the school in question. “People will just cease bringing their kids to the school and it will eventually have to close down permanently.”
He pleaded with the government to consider all these and also educate people against discriminating against infected people or those who have recovered from the virus.
The teacher added that even if schools are reopened, it will be difficult for the social distancing policy and other COVID-19 measures to be respected especially with children in the pre-school. “I would have wished for everything to calm down a bit and not risk the lives of our children.”
As part of measures to fight against the novel coronavirus in Ghana, schools and other public institutions have been closed down indefinitely.
The Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah mentioned in an Instagram Q&A over the weekend that the president is in consultation with stakeholders on reopening schools.
This information was regarded as good news for some citizens while others deemed it as dangerous citing the France example.
A week after a third of French children went back to school after restrictions were eased, the country recorded a flareup of about 70 COVID-19 cases linked to schools and this fear has led to some schools closing once again.
