The Ghana Education Service (GES) has explained that its decision to reschedule the reopening date for final year Senior High School students is to afford the students an uninterrupted instructional period when they finally return to school in May.
According to the GES, the earlier arrangement was that the students report to school on Tuesday, April 6 and stay in school until May 28, 2021 when they were scheduled to go on vacation. But with the current arrangement, it said, students will be in school without a break until they write their final exams, WASCCE.
This, for GES, is a better option than the earlier arrangement since the students will have lengthy time to prepare for their final examination without any interruption whatsoever.
“This is to give the Form 3 students an interrupted instructional period till they write their final examination. Ordinarily, the Form 3 students were to report to school today, 6th April and be in school until 28th May, 2021. They were then to have gone on vacation from 28th May to 29th June, 2021.
The current arrangement therefore means that when the final year students report on 5th May, 2021, they will be in school until they write their WASSCE,” a statement signed by Cassandra Twum Ampofo, Head of Public Relation Unit of GES, said.
It added “Management of GES therefore considers this as a better option where the students will not break their instructional period and have their full 1,080 hours needed prior to the final examination”.
The statement is in line with its earlier assurance to give further details on the decision to postpone the resumption of school for final year students.
The GES, earlier in the day, notified the general public of its decision to reschedule the reopening date to May. It explained that it arrived at the decision after considering a proposal by the Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS).
The announcement has since left scores of final year students who have already reported to their various schools stranded as the notice from GES did not come in time.
But GES in its statement apologized to the students and their parents for the late communication of the new arrangement.
Meanwhile, the Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS) says it made the proposal for the rescheduling of the reopening to prevent congestion.
President of CHASS, Yacoub Abubakar said allowing SHS 3 students to return to school with the students who are currently in school will lead to congestion and make it impossible for students to observe the Covid-19 safety protocols hence, their proposal to GES to reconsider the reopening date.
