Scores of private basic schools in the Central Region on Monday, January 11, 2021, begun undergoing mass disinfection against the new coronavirus (COVID-19).
The exercise was also to allow for the safe reopening of all the schools on Friday, January 15, as directed by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in his 21st Covid-19 address to the nation.
The ongoing disinfection operation is a collaboration between the central government and waste management company, Zoomlion Ghana Limited (ZGL).
The schools that benefited were St George’s Catholic Preparatory School, Nana Yaw Ankomah Basic School, Bethel Moses Preparatory School, Enstuah Mensah Preparatory School, Annette Preparatory, Little Shepard International and Mrs Kwakye De Excellence, all in Komenda in the Central Region.
Also Zoomlion disinfected a number of private schools in the Elmina Circuit. These were Peter Holdbroke Smith, Church of Christ, Cole Angle Community School, Fair Weather, Priceless Preparatory School, Lady of Apostle, Monica Yorke, Ebenezer Preparatory School and Holywood School.
Though many of the headmasters and headmistress declined to talk to the media, their facial expressions in the light of the exercise was one of contentment.
It would be recalled that all universities, SHSs, basic schools, both private and public, were closed down in the early part of March 2020 following the outbreak of Covid in the country.
However, final-year JHS and SHS students were exempted from the directive and were to remain in school and adhere to prescribed Covid protocols while preparing for their examinations in May and June 2020, respectively.
On August 30, 2020, President Akufo-Addo in his 16th address to the nation on measures taken to control the spread of the disease announced that JHS and SHS students in their second year (Form 2) were to resume on October 5, 2020, to complete the 2019/20 academic year.
The President directed that JHS students would operate with a class size of 30 while SHS would have a class size of 25.
He added that the students would be in school for 10 weeks to study and write their end of term examination papers.
