The Ghana Education Service has assured parents and students that it will revise the academic timetable following the disruption of academic work in the wake of the outbreak of the novel Coronavirus.
The education sector has been severely impacted by the outbreak as all schools have closed down and students sent home. Globally, over one billion students are home due to the outbreak.
Major exams like the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) and the Basic Education Certificate have also been suspended as a result.
But the Director-General of the Ghana Education Service, Professor Kwasi Opoku Amankwa said a team had been assigned to ensure that learning activities are conducted through virtual platforms with a new timetable for an uninterrupted learning process.
He also added that the education service is looking into various options for a revised timetable which will be based on the time schools will be cleared to reopen.
“The next important thing that we need to be thinking about whether in the short, medium or long term, is that the students will have to go back to school. The team is also working to ensure that by the time school reopens, we have an idea about how we go about the timetabling but it will all depend on the exigencies of the time. We have to look at various timetable options that could exist and the various scenarios,” he said.
SHS 3 students asked to go home
Until last week, final year SHS, JHS and Nurses Training students were still going to school, although their juniors were directed to go home.
The government was of the view that these two groups of people were to be kept in school as they prepare to write their Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) and the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).
But following concerns raised by teacher unions over the continuous stay of the students in the school and the suspension of the 2023 edition of the WASSCE by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), the Ghana Education Service directed that their classes should be on hold.
“Management of GES after consultations with the relevant bodies hereby directs that all final year students in the Senior High Schools should be allowed to go home immediately, until further notice,” the GES said.