The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for an Akuapem based Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), As I Grow (AIG), Mr. Debrah Bekoe Isaac has hinted that, children in deprived communities would highly be at risk as schools resume.
According to him, there is the need for the Ghana Education Service (GES) to roll out measures to address the possible challenges that children in these aforementioned areas would go through.
Mr. Debrah Bekoe Isaac lauded the government for such a bold initiative to re-open the schools but expressed additional worry on how these deprived children and schools would be able to go by the Covid-19 safety protocols.
He contended that these communities are not having potable drinking water, roads and most especially have little or no education on the Covid19 protocols, a situation that would be more detrimental than helping the education of the children.
The CEO of ‘As I Grow’ who is also a professional teacher and an elder of the Church of Pentecost (COP) expressed the worry in an interview with the paper when this reporter contacted him to find out how his outfit was helping the deprived communities ahead of the resuming of schools.
The Larteh COP Elder disclosed that, the current wave of the Covid-19 pandemic has been one of the major setbacks in the education system of the world of which Ghana has not been left out.
“This has derailed the academic activities in Ghana and even the whole world. The president of Ghana upon various consultations came out on new year’s eve that on 9th and 15th of January, 2021 schools in Ghana – tertiary, second cycle, basic and kindergarten – are to go back to continue their academic work”, he pointed out.
Buttressing his argument that children in the deprived communities have little or no knowledge about the safety protocols, Mr. Debrah accentuated that, “our outfit upon the president’s directive conducted a series of interviews on the outcome of this directive”.
He said about 90% of the people in the communities they visited, both adults and children did not have much information about the pandemic and the safety protocols.To him, this less knowledge on the pandemic in deprived communities in Ghana poses a threat to the lives of the children as schools resume.
He said most of the communities do not have water, and would have to even travel miles before they would have access to a stream or river. He rhetorically asked, ‘how can they protect themselves?’.
Mr. Debrah Bekoe Isaac took the opportunity to call on Ghanaians not to push all the burdens on the government and that all hands must be on the deck in the fight against the disease.
The post Children in deprived communities at higher risk as schools re-open –NGO appeared first on The Chronicle Online.
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