The Ghana Education Service (GES) has directed that all final-year students in senior high schools (SHSs) should be allowed to go home immediately until further notice.
This follows the decision of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) to suspend the sitting of the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) scheduled to start next month.
According to the Director-General of the GES, Professor Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa, “The management of the Ghana Education Service (GES), after consultation with the relevant bodies, hereby directs that all final-year students in senior high schools should be allowed to go home immediately, until further notice.”
In a signed statement, Prof. Opoku-Amankwa added that the management was holding discussions with WAEC on the conduct of the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE).
Stakeholders
Meanwhile, stakeholders in education have hailed WAEC for suspending the pending WASSCE. They believe the decision is timely and welcoming because the health and safety of the students, teachers and other educational staff are paramount.
BECE candidates
The management, according to the statement, further directed that all basic schools which were open to allow final-year students to prepare for their final examination were also to close down effective Monday.
“Any decision arrived at after the discussion on the 2020 BECE will be communicated to the general public,” the statement said.
Assurance
It assured students, parents and the general public that “concrete steps are being taken to ensure that all students will have access to academic programmes while at home.”
The GES said it was monitoring the situation and would review same in consultation with all the relevant institutions and bodies, and update schools on the next steps.
Background
The President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, last Sunday banned all public gatherings for the next four weeks in response to the confirmation of four more coronavirus disease (COVID – 19) cases in the country.
The President also directed that all universities, senior high schools, basic schools – private and public – were all closed from today until further notice.
The directives, however, exempted candidates of the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) and the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) candidates would be allowed to attend school to prepare for the examinations, but with the prescribed social distancing protocols.
Following the announcement, teacher unions appealed to the President to release the third year students to stay at home and negotiate with the WAEC to reschedule the WASSCE and BECE.
Safety first
Speaking in an interview, an educationist, Mr Anis Haffer, said the suspension of the examination was in the right direction because “we have no idea exactly what is going to happen from today and we have to also understand that health and safety is the number one for every serious country.”
He said the decision was crucial for the protection of the young students, stressing that nothing was more important than curtailing the spread of the COVID-19.
Mr Haffer was happy that the students, teachers and even the WAEC staff, who would be conducting the exam, would be protected.
He expressed the belief that the examination could be written anytime the situation was normalised, saying that, “we are now on the wait and see mode as well as hope and pray that everything would be fine.”
Academic calendar
On disruptions to the academic work, Mr Haffer said it was time to rely on the Internet, especially those in the privileged position with access to the internet, to stay abreast of learning.
He said that was the direction the world over, and Ghana could not stay aloof, adding that those in the rural areas without Internet could carry the textbooks home and anytime they were confronted with a problem, they could contact their respective teachers for assistance.
Mr Haffer said every aspect of academic work on the school environment should be suspended and everyone should take precaution, “while we wait and pray because these are not normal times.”
Describing the outbreak as a national catastrophe unfolding, he said, the time had come for Ghana to be serious with sanitation and hygienic practices.
GNAT
The General Secretary of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), Mr Thomas Musah, said: “When I heard the news that WAEC has done the needful, it was like iced water in my hand.”
He said the position of the teacher unions had always been that the social distance protocol was not possible for the students, considering their numbers.
“We also believe that considering the situation, learning will not take place because the students are not psychologically sound. They will be afraid.
“Moreover, we indicated that some of the students will be coming through to school in ‘trotro’ where there will be many contacts,” he explained, and commended WAEC for the “bold step taken” to reschedule the writing of the examination.
“After all, the first law of nature is to protect lives or safety first and we want to commend them for taking such a decision to save the lives of the people,” he stated.
Discharge them
Mr Musah said with the development, the management of the education sector had no justification for still keeping the final-year students in school, not even the BECE candidates since their examination would be in June.
CCT-GH
The President of the Coalition for Concerned Teachers, Ghana (CCT-GH), Mr King Ali Awudu, described the announcement as good news because that was what the teacher unions had been advocating.
Speaking on the academic timetable, he said, the calendar was not cast in stone and could be varied when the need arose.
Mr Awudu said the academic calendar for tertiary institutions, for instance, was flexible, where some began in September and others in January, while others offered sandwich programmes.
Gratitude and advice
Mr Awudu was grateful to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for the initial steps he took “and also thank the Minister of Education, the Director-General of the Ghana Education Service for heeding the plea of the teachers and finally, the WAEC for accepting to postpone the examination.”
He advised the students not to see being at home as a holiday, “but they should consider it as an extension of the teaching and learning period and read their books so that whenever they are called upon to come back to school it would not appear that everything that they were taught has vanished into thin air.”
Victory for all
For the Chairman of the Teachers and Educational Workers Union (TEWU), Mr Peter K. Lumor, the suspension of the examination was a victory for everybody, describing it as good news worthy of celebration.
He proposed that teachers of the various schools should create platforms with parents of their students so that they could constantly give assignments to them through their parents’ phones to ensure that the students were still in the learning mode and not become rusty.
Directive from WAEC
The WAEC yesterday issued a statement putting on hold the conduct of this year’s WASSCE in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This is in line with the protocols put in place by governments of WAEC member countries to prevent the spread of the virus,” the statement, signed by the Head of Public Affairs of WAEC, Mrs Agnes Teye-Cudjoe, explained.
It said in light of the issue, the timetable for the 2020 WASSCE for school candidates had been suspended until further notice.
“A new timetable for the conduct of the examination will be designed and made available to all stakeholders when the health situation improves,” the statement said.
