Education Minister inaugurates school reopening committee

The Minister of Education, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, has inaugurated a 10-member committee in Accra to deliberate and advise on modalities for the reopening of schools in the pre-tertiary subsector for the President’s approval.

This follows the address by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to the nation on Sunday, August 16, 2020, which included the government’s intention to consider the reopening of schools after they had been shut down in March this year because of the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Committee members

The committee is chaired by the Chairman of the GETFund Board of Trustees, Prof. Dominic Fobih, with the other members being the Chairman of the Ghana Education Service (GES) Council, Mr Michael Nsowah; the Director-General of the GES, Prof. Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa; the Deputy Director-General of the GES in charge of Management Services Mr Anthony Boateng, and the Deputy Director-General of the GES in charge of Quality and Access, Dr Kwabena Tandoh.

The rest are the Director of Pre-Tertiary at the MoE, Madam Catherine Appiah-Pinkrah; a representative of UNICEF, Mr Madeez Adamu Issah; a representative of private schools, Mr I.K. Mensah; the Chairperson of the Parent-Teacher Association of Accra Girls’ SHS, Nana Kwasi Amoako, and the Director, Schools and Instructions, Mrs Patty Assan.

The committee is expected to report to the minister on Monday, September 21, 2020, with its recommendations.

Directive

President Akufo-Addo, in his address, had tasked the Ministry of Education to engage with the GES and all relevant stakeholders to conclude discussions on the modalities for the reopening of pre-tertiary schools.

He pledged to communicate, in due course, the decisions that would be reached from those consultations and gave an assurance that he would always take into prime consideration the safety and well-being of the children, teachers and non-teaching staff in the decisions that would be taken.

The President stated his determination to ensure that “the education of our children is not unduly disturbed by this pandemic”.

The committee is expected to report to the Minister on Monday, September 21, 2020 with its recommendations.