Re-opening date for basic schools will be announced soon – Education Ministry

The Education Minister has stated that its readying itself to announce a reopening date for all public basic schools across the country.

In an interview with joy News, Public Relation Officer (P.R.O) of the ministry, Kwasi Kwarteng noted that COVID – 19 pandemic disrupted the academic calendar of the past.

He stated that the delays in announcing reopening date for basic schools has been occasioned by plans to resolve the disparity that COVID-19 caused the academic calendar

“It is an undeniable fact that the whole COVID regime certainly distorted our academic calendar. But of course, what the minister for Education has done is to now set clarity, so that the inconsistencies and of course the discrepancies when it comes to our academic calendar, that we have been witnessing, will be a thing of the past”.

And so what the minister for education, the honorable, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, has done is to set up a ministerial committee on school calendar.

The calendar
the committee had met, of course, under the leadership of the Deputy Minister, Rev. Ntim Fordjour. Just las Thursday, they finalized the draft document of their work,” he said.

Mr. Kwasi Kwarteng also mentioned that the actions of the Ministry was well intended to address issues revolving around reopening dates for this year and beyond.

“What it means is that, we were going to have clarity and consistency in the academic calendar for our students. Not only for the 2021/2022, so that we set that clarity. so those problems with inconsistencies in re – opening dates, will be a thing of the past,” he further explained.

Asked when the Committee will complete its work, Mr. Kwarteng stated that, “We are very very hopeful that within this week, the final report will come out so that we will have a clarity on the academic calendar, i.e. reopening and closing for all schools in the pre – tertiary category”

Deputy ranking member on Parliament’s Education Committee, Clement Apaak had earlier raised concerns regarding the reopening of public basic schools.

He disclosed that two weeks in the new year, basic school pupils in private schools were already reporting for the academic year, however same cannot be said about their counterparts in public-school.

Clement has thus threatened to haul the education minister, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, before parliament to explain the situation before the house.

source: www.ghanaweb.com