Dear, Prof. Kwasi
Opoku-Amankwa- Director-General of Ghana Education Service (GES). I
salute you and wish to draw your attention to some issues regarding the
Coronavirus Pandemic and the need to shut down public schools you superintend
over. I hope avidly that this letter gets to your attention. I am encouraged to
write to you as a concerned citizen and not a sitting- on- the -fence spectator.
Prof. Opoku-Amankwa, I saw a copy
of your administrative directive or letter number GES/DG/245/20/113 dated 13th March
2020 and addressed to all Regional
Directors of Education. You gave this directive in your capacity as the
Director- General of the GES. The caption of your directive under reference
reads, Education On Coronavirus Prevention In Schools. In
this correspondence, you impressed upon your District Directors of education as
well as school heads to liaise with the various District Directors of Health
Service for a smooth education on the virus, using the education materials both
the GES and the Ghana Health Service (GHS) have developed on CONVID-19.
However, I hold an opposing view
to your directive hence this open letter to you. Prof. Opoku-Amankwa, life is
the most precious gift from God hence no hope exists without life. Academic
pursuits and other endeavours thrive on life and good health. Again, life is
like an egg so once it is broken, one cannot bring it back. So far, Ghana has
recorded two (2) positive cases of the Coronavirus, an indication that we are
not excluded from the effects of the pandemic as declared by the World Health
Organization (WHO). It is in this regard that we must take strict actions for
the pandemic has been declared as a state of emergency in some other countries
so we are not in normal times globally. We must not make the mistake that
Europe and for that matter Italy had made in handling the pandemic, Prof.
Opoku-Amankwa. The Holy See located within the Vatican City has equally
scrapped compulsory Sunday Mass in Italy as a drastic step to stop the
Coronavirus. Even the universally present Catholic Church with the Pope at its
pinnacle has taken such a shutdown action so why not Ghana?
D-G, death is staring at Ghana in
the form of the Coronavirus so we must not be using weaker weapons. We must not
attempt to kill a lion with a catapult when we have the time and other
resources to own a gun for the purpose. The biggest preventive measure in my
view under the circumstance, Prof. Opoku-Amankwa, is to shut down the GES
schools and not to keep the schools in session and be doing health education on
the pandemic disease. The public is somehow educated now on the disease. What
we need now are strict preventive measures such as shutting down the schools
before it is too late and not the distribution of education materials alone as
you are doing currently. Education on the Coronavirus must not be a crowded
classroom affair.
The whole world panics at the
mention of the Coronavirus, Prof. Opoku-Amankwa, so let us not play the strong
man or the ostrich here. Let us take counsel from Ola Rotimi’s assertion- in
his book The Gods Are Not To Blame - that the butterfly must not
think himself a bird.
Even within the hegemonic boundaries of America,
President Trump declared that the Coronavirus pandemic has necessitated a
national public health emergency in that country. As a result, schools in 12 of
the 50 (24%) states in America have been shut down to millions of students.
Even
America, the world’s superpower at various fronts worldwide panics at the
Coronavirus so how can Ghana portray to be that resilient with health education
in schools instead of shutting down those schools? After all, we know the
unfortunate nature of most of the GES schools. We also know of the crowded
classrooms and compromised environmental hygiene in most of the GES schools.
Play Video
It is true, Prof. Opoku-Amankwa,
that the Easter breaks are near but because we do not know how fast the virus
may sweep through Ghana, we need to act swiftly. Knowing that Ghana is
currently holding 2 positive cases and the situation may worsen, we can give
the exam questions as home works to the students and pupils or cancel the exams
and let the pupils and students go home before it is too late. The impact on
the academic curriculum will not be that big. Even if it is big, it is nothing
compared to death or massive infections. After all, even in the late 1990s, the
public universities went on a long strike but we were back on track.
Let us not wait till we sing “had
I known” at the end. It should not be lost on us that some private schools
especially the international schools in the country have started shutting down.
Globally, planned gatherings of people are being cancelled and schools are
being shut down. Just yesterday, Prof. Opoku-Amankwa, the Government of
Portugal ordered a nationwide shutdown of all schools in order to contain the
Coronavirus. So what are you waiting for as the D-G of the GES to act similarly
and expeditiously? America, Belgium, Costa Rica, Qatar and many other countries
had taken similar preventive measures to save their people. Let it not be told
that under his competent watch, Prof. Opoku-Amankwa acted differently and not
proactively so the negative effect is deadly for Ghana.
Prof.Opoku-Amankwa, this is the
reason why you need to shut down the GES schools immediately. The advice that
we should not panic is no more working. Even the well developed countries with
advanced healthcare systems are panicking at the Coronavirus. President Trump
of America panics so he has quickly put stringent measures in place to protect
the American people. To say and act as if Ghana panics not, is a mendacity of a
sort to me. Consider closing down the schools now and send the children home
before they become infected in the crowded classrooms. The alarming situation
calls for proactive measures and not kneejerk approaches in despair. Time to
act is now, Prof.Opoku-Amankwa.
~Asante Sana
~
Author: Philip Afeti Korto.
Email: afetikorto@yahoo.com
Source:
https://www.modernghana.com
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