Ensure all protocols are observed - GES tells heads of schools

The Ghana Education Service is asking heads of senior high schools to ensure that students and staff strictly adhere to all the health and safety protocols outlined to curb the spread of the new coronavirus disease as schools open their gates to the final-year and second year Gold Track students.

The Director-General of the GES, Prof Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa who stated  this, said guidelines as to how the heads should manage the schools had been shared with them and the GES expected that they follow them to the letter.

Speaking in an interview on the readiness of management of the GES for the reopening of the schools, Prof Opoku-Amankwa said all the PPE had been dispatched to all schools and it was the expectation that all the schools would have received their share by the close of Monday.

Under the guidelines, students must wear masks at all times, wash hands with soap under running water or rub hands with alcohol-based
hand sanitizer before entering a school compound, always observe social distancing of at least one metre and avoid handshaking or body contact as well as register their details including phone numbers with school authorities.

The guidelines also expect the heads of the schools to provide thermometer guns or thermal scanners for checking the temperature of staff and students at all entry points of schools and also ensure the mandatory wearing of masks by all at all times as well as provide hand washing facilities with running water and soap and/or FDA approved alcohol-based hand sanitizer.

Prof Opoku-Amankwa said the guidelines also included the seating protocols in the classrooms and the dining halls as well as the arrangement of beds in the dormitories.

He said the guidelines also required that the heads provided adequate waste management facilities and adequate toilet facilities for students, staff, and visitors as well as ensure regular cleaning and disinfection of toilet facilities.

Prof Opoku-Amankwa said the heads were expected to follow all the guidelines and best practices to ensure that there was safety and security on their campuses and in the event of anything, “they should call us and give us the feedback immediately.”

To the parents, the D-G also assured parents of the safety of their wards in the schools, adding that adequate measures had been put in place to ensure maximum security and protection of students while they were in the school.

He told Graphic Online that all classes would be split, of no more than 25 students in a class and all day students in boarding schools would be in boarding, while day schools would have enhanced daily health protocols.

Additionally, dining will be in batches in the boarding schools.

“The heads are to make classroom seating arrangements such that students or chairs are at least one metre away from each other.

“Boarding schools/SHS and TVET dining halls should be kept clean always and attendance to dining halls should be in batches to ensure social distancing, while the tables and benches at the dining halls should be disinfected after each batch”, Prof Opoku-Amankwa said.

He said the heads were also asked to display the approved health promotion materials on COVID-19 at vantage points on the school compound to remind students to keep to social distancing protocols, wearing of the masks, regular hand washing, coughing, and sneezing etiquette.

As part of the guidelines, Prof Opoku-Amankwa said heads were also to ensure that the school infirmaries are opened at all times and a full-time nurse should be stationed to provide first aid services.

“Each boarding school is required to earmark a dormitory (male and female in a mixed school) as potential isolation centre should there be the need to isolate any student.

“Each school is mapped to a particular health facility to which the school shall report any emergency”, he further added.