Is Your Exam Worth The Lives Of Students And Teachers In Our Schools?

It's about time civil society and other stakeholders began to add their voices to the call for our students to be sent home to prevent the spread of infection of the virus among their colleagues and teachers in schools. It's very strange that government refuses to listen to the good counsel of the many Ghanaians, who express their worries about the unsafe situation of having our students in schools and at the time the number of the infection keeps soaring daily and causing a lot of fear and panic among these students, teachers, and parents.

Government may be wrong to think that, a traumatized and psychological challenged student can ever have the right composure to sit for any exam and successfully write the same. Does the government just want the students to write and fail their exams or pass their exams to better their future? Therefore, the right decision must be taken to protect the lives of these students, who are the future leaders in this country. I doubt if this exam is more important than the lives of these students! Government mustn't, therefore, be adamant to the demand of parents asking to get back their children at homes. I can see government is rather oblivious of the fact that the precious lives of these students are at stake.

Let it also be known to government that, all the heavy investment in these students in relation to the free education policy offered to them will come to nothing if the rate of infection leads to any fatalities as the end result. What then will be the benefit to government as well as the nation should our students die as a result of this weird and entrenched position government has taken and not trying to yield to the advice of closing down the schools? We believe it's the right of government to take decisions for us, but those decisions must be wise and feasible.

Nobody, especially parents would have been much worried if the number of infections wasn't increasing daily. But we can't say we are doing our best to control the situation when everything points to the fact that, we are seriously losing the fight against the spread of the virus. Government doesn't really need to allow EC to go and register these students on their various campuses to prove to anybody that, government is indeed providing free education to these students. No! If these students will still vote for the government to appreciate all that it's doing for them, they will do just that. But how can a government cares for votes but doesn't value the lives of the voters?

What shocks me is the fact that government is not going by its own rules and regulations as set up to fight against the virus. Why would parents and guardians be prevented from visiting their wards in schools but politicians are seen daily interacting with students? Maybe, that's the purpose for which government doesn't want to allow these students to go home to their parents so that it will engage them rather in their schools as a way of telling them how they have been provided with free education and the need to vote for the government. However, we all saw recently how a minister of state carried his infected self around town. Who knows how many people he might have gotten infected as well. And these unwanted visitors in our various schools, what could be their status as well? Government must be blamed for helping spread the virus by its own actions and inactions.

Again, it could also be argued that government doesn't want to be seen as insensitive if it allows the closure of schools while some political activities like voter registration, NIA registration, campaigns and other stuff go on. But can this be a better reason to keep our students in schools and exposing them to the higher risk of infection? I will say no. Because the lives of these future leaders are more important than any greedy political agenda we may have in our minds now. And I call on government to act now and swiftly.

Interestingly enough, I hear some people lamely arguing that the number of infections in our schools in insignificant to call for the closure of school. It's with the same lack of being proactive that has led the country into this mess we have found ourselves in at the moment. If at the time the infection rate or number in the country was just under five and government had closed down our borders, I don't think the situation would have been this dicey. Does government want to see all the students in all schools being infected before it reasons properly or what? Let's not toy with our students' lives for there isn't any second life here on earth.

As for the education minister's reasons for not allowing the closure of these schools, the little said about it the better. How could he have said that the students are kept in schools to prevent them from other social vices? This to me sounds illogically stupid. Who told him the students in schools are spared from sexual harassment, drugs, stealing and other immoral fraternisation? The same students on campus are the same at home and the campus isn't a safer place than home. However, since when did he know that, allowing the students to stay at home opens them up to these social vices he mentioned? Has he suddenly forgotten about the double-tracking system that keeps students at home always? If there is any reason that's untenable to allowing the students to go home, what he gave comes not near any better reason too and he must bring different options backed with sound reasoning.

Finally, I would humbly suggest that, if government thinks the exam is that important and can't be done without, it must be prepared to conduct testing for the students, teachers and non-teaching staffs in all schools. This at least will make sure our students, teachers and non-teaching staffs are all safe to stay and work towards the exams. Until that's done, government has no moral rights to keep any pressure on students and parents by refusing to allow the students go home to their parents

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