Include JHS, SHS 1 students in October reopening – CHOPSS

First-year students in Junior and Senior High Schools in the country according to the Conference of Heads of Private Second-Cycle Schools (CHOPSS), should be included in the October 5 school reopening.

The petition by the (CHOPSS) follows the central government’s decision to reopen the school for prospective second-year students in Junior and Senior High School on October 5, 2020, to complete the 2019/2020 academic year.

The spokesperson of (CHOPSS) in an interview with the Ghana News Agency said the first-year students like the second-year’s were not too far from writing their respective end of the semester examinations.

According to the Public Relations Officer, the temporal school closure and break in their academic activities would have a negative impact on their academic performance should school reopened January 2021.

In the view of (CHOPSS), the Ghana Education Service (GES) including first-year students to the October 5, school reopening would facilitate proper planning ahead of the 2020/2021 academic calendar next year.

Mr Naphtali Kyei Baffour on behalf of CHOPSS urged the Akufo-Addo government to consider the economic impact of the closure of schools particularly on private schools and staff and speed up processes of reopening other levels of the school system.

The spokesperson noted that a prolonged closure of schools would double the unemployment rate in the country as most private schools had laid off staff amid lack of funds to settle pay settle the teaching and non-teaching staff.

“If we are going to keep the students home, let’s think about the economic effect and the hardship that this has brought to private schools as well.

“As we speak some teachers from private schools have not been paid since April, so if we are extending it to January, it means that this whole month, they won’t be paid. The impact is massive,” Naphtali added.

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Mr Kyei Baffour, consequently, reiterated the need for government to include private schools in its stimulus package for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), to mitigate their plight and curb further job losses.

Source: Georgeweb.org