Editorial: Why final year students must be in school

One of the major problems confronting the country today is the criticism against the government’s decision to re-open schools. The universities re-opened yesterday, with final year Senior High School (SHS) and final year Junior High School (JHS) students expected to follow soon.

According to the government, the decision is to allow these students study and write their exit examinations, but most of the stakeholders are not enthused about this, saying the government is not concerned about the safety of the students and their teachers.

Most of these stakeholders are making reference to what has happened in Israel, where the government has been compelled to shutdown schools a few weeks after reopening, when they realised that the Coronavirus (Covid-19) infections had started going up, especially among the children and their teachers.  Much as these are genuine concerns that cannot be thrown overboard, The Chronicle thinks the issue at stake is being blown out of proportion.

As the Health Minister, Kwaku Agyeman Manu, said some few weeks ago, the Covid-19 won’t leave us anytime soon, so we, as people, must adopt a strategy that would help us to live with it until a vaccine is found.  We believe it is on the basis of this that the European countries and United States of America, which have recorded higher cases than ours, have started opening up their respective economies. As we put this piece together, major football leagues in Europe, which were put on hold, have resumed, with countries such as Germany, Italy and France opening up their land borders.

Since Ghana is part of the global village, we cannot sit down and always be thinking about Covid-19 and neglect measures that would help in the development of the country in future. We cannot expect our medical students, engineers, and lawyers, among a host of others, to pass out without going through any form of scrutiny to determine whether they are qualified or not.  Certainly, the various universities would have to examine them, which can only be done when the students return to school for a final brush up.

Again, it is the desire of every parent to have his or her ward enrolled in the Achimotas, Prempehs, Mawulis, St. Augustines, Mfantsipims, and Aggrey Memorials among other highly revered senior high schools in the country. Now, if these final JHS three students are not allowed to go back to school to study and write their final examination, how is the government going to get all these students enrolled in the schools of their choice, if the government decides on mass promotion? Certainly, there would be chaos in the country if the government decides to choose the path of mass promotion instead of examinations to determine who enters which school.

The Covid-19 has become an albatross hanging around the neck of every country, and the only way to go round it is to think outside the box, which the government is doing.  Anyone who listened to President Akufo-Addo on Sunday night would agree that he did not just announce the re-opening of the schools, but that measures had been put in place to protect the students and teachers from contracting the disease on campus.

Among these measures is the supply of hand sanitisers to both teachers and students, fumigation of the various campuses, and the order for the students to wear face masks on campus. To us, the government has done its part, it is up to the students and lecturers to also do their part by observing all the protocols that have been put in place.  If a student goes on campus and decides to neglect all these safety measures, there is nothing the government can do about it, because university students are not kids.

It must be put on record that it is only in the educational sector that the rules seem to have been relaxed a bit. Though the doors have been opened for churches and mosques, most Christians and Muslims are still worshiping at their various homes, because it is not easy for their leaders to meet the strict measures put in place by the government to supervise the conduct of their services.

Our airspace and land borders also remain closed, because the government does not want further importation of the disease. If our airports and land borders remained closed, but schools have partially been opened, it tells the value the government attaches to education, and we appeal to all parents to help the government to shape the future of the country, by supporting the reopening of the schools.

What we expect every parent to do is to properly school their wards on the dos and donts whilst on campus, to help protect themselves from contracting the disease, whilst pursuing education that would secure their future.

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