Some Ghanaian private school workers including teachers and headteachers have appealed to President Akufo-Addo to, as a matter of urgency, review the decision to defer the reopening of schools to next year.
The President had announced at his regular Covid-19 briefings that all nursery, kindergarten, primary, JHS 1 and SHS 1 students will not re-open until next year.
But, the private schools workers argue that unlike their colleagues in the public sector, they have not been paid salaries since the closure of schools in the first quarter of the year due to the pandemic.
Speaking to CJ Forson on Adom FM’s Dwaso Nsem on Tuesday, Dorcas Forson, Financial Secretary to the Early Childhood Association of Ghana, urged government to reopen schools as soon as possible.
Listen to Dorcas in the audio below:
“Things have been very difficult for teachers, particularly private school teachers for the past six months, we are in dire need of money to take care of ourselves and our families so government must quickly review the directive on allowing just JHS 2 and SHS 2 to resume school in October,” she noted.
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“All pupils at the various classes must be allowed to also resume school in October, we can take care of the pupils and ensure that they obey the protocols if that’s what government is afraid of,” she pleaded.
On his part, the headteacher for Amazing Grace Educational Centre, Evans Osei said private schools relied heavily on the tuition fees of the pupils to pay salaries of teachers.
“We get our monies from fees paid by the parents of our pupils, things have already been bad for us and making them stay home to the end of the year, will further worsen the plights of teachers. The government needs to act fast and review the directive else things will be ugly” he emphasized.
To him, the directive is indicative that the government was oblivious to the plight of private school workers.
In President Akufo-Addo’s sixteenth televised address to the nation on measures taken to combat the Covid-19, the president intimated that he had consulted extensively with the Ghana Education Service (GES) and other stakeholders in the educational field to arrive at the decision.
“…after consultation with the relevant stakeholders, for SHS 2 and JHS 2 students to return to school from 5th October to 14th December 2020 to complete their academic year,” said.