Suspending Academic Work Till 2021; Not In The Interest Of Schools — GCOPS

Private Schools are questioning what they call the haste in defining the new restrictions on basic and high School Education.

It follows government’s decision to suspend academic activities of pre-school, basic, JHS1 and JHS 2 students till next year.

According to the Ghana Council of Private Schools, the president jumped ahead of a steering committee convened to fashion out modalities for reopening schools.

The association says it is awaiting a retraction and review of the directives as it insists it is not in the interest of students, teachers and school owners.

“We are expecting the president to come back to make some changes because as we speak, there is a committee set up by the Minister of Education which involves private and secondary school stakeholders soliciting ideas to present to the president by the 21st of September on the reopening of schools. So what was the need for the formation of the committee,” Communications Director for the Council Edward Frimpong quizzes.

He pointed out that this committee was chaired by Minister of State in charge of Tertiary Education Professor Kwesi Yankah and wondered why the president did not wait for the views of the properly constituted body.

The private schools are further concerned the intelligence quotients of students will be greatly eroded by the long stay at home without active physical monitoring and direction of teachers.

Edward Frimpong warns that the difficulty the teachers faced in getting Senior High Schools to revise after three months of school closure will be worse when students come back after ten months of vacation.

He averred, “Even when the students returned to write the BECE, we saw how it was difficult revising. How much more the students going to stay home for nine to ten weeks wasting time and watching television with no regard for their books.”

Meanwhile, the schools say they are bent on demanding support from government to alleviate the suffering of private schools and their teachers who have been left with no source of revenues to pay for salaries, loans and school maintenance costs.