'COVID-19 presents opportunity to bond, manage children properly'

Until yesterday when the Danish government re-opened the doors for pupils to return to schools, the United Nations had estimated that some 1.52 billion children and youth from 166 countries worldwide were out of school due to the outbreak of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

The closure of schools also affected pupils and students in the country after it was hit by the disease, which as of yesterday had affected 636 people.

Now that children in Ghana have been at home for more than a month, it would be prudent to put in place proper measures to manage them so that they do not become victims of the circumstance.

Child management
Since Ghana's case count continues to rise, children will continue to be at home, especially with the partial lockdown in parts of the country, until the infection rate begins to flatten to give some hope of returning to school soon.

For Mr Kofi Asare, a child rights activist, parents should try and have fore knowledge of schedules for telecasting of educational contents on the Ghana Learning Television, a virtual learning platform initiated by the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service to keep children with classroom activities.

Having followed educational issues for the past two decades, Mr Asare, who is also the Executive Director of Africa Education Watch
miss them.

"So we expect every parent to have the timetable so that they can regulate the activities of the children to be sure that they are ready for the lessons," he said.

Interactive
He said because television was not interactive it would be important for parents to play that supportive role by clarifying things their children did not understand in any of the lessons that would be aired.

A teacher at the Korle-Gonno RC Boys Junior High School, Mr Isaac Bondzie, said although the outbreak of the COVID-19 was unfortunate, parents should take advantage of the presence of their children at home to teach them household activities.

"Apart from ensuring that they continue learning at home, we can use this opportunity to take them through domestic chores and housekeeping activities to ensure that they grow into responsible adults," he said.

He indicated that the presence of children at home could be used as an opportunity to strengthen family bonds unlike before the COVID-19 period when most parents had only just about the weekend to be with their children.

Example
A businesswoman, Ms Doris Adu, said, for instance, "my 11-year-old daughter can now switch on the stove, tidy up my room and that of her siblings and assist me in the kitchen without any difficulty. This was not the situation before the COVOD-19".

In spite of all that, she said, her daughter had time to learn because she had planned her activities for the day.

"The COVID-19 is quite unfortunate and we are praying that it ends soon but in the meantime, let's use it to ensure the holistic development of our children," she said.

She said parents should continue ensuring that their children followed the protocols aimed at preventing people from contracting the COVID- 19.