A classroom being disinfected
About 4,500 basic schools in the Greater Accra Region are being disinfected by Zoomlion Ghana Limited as part of the measures to reopen the schools to final year students to enable them to sit for their basic exams in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The exercise is covering both public and private basic schools, and it has already commenced in the Ablekuma North Municipal Assembly in Accra.
The General Manager of Zoomlion Ghana Limited, Greater Accra Region, Ernest Morgan Arthur, said at the Odorkor Cluster of Schools in the municipality that they were ensuring the pupils would encounter conducive environment to promote teaching and learning.
The schools where the exercise commenced included Odorkor Maclean Basic, Odorkor 4&7 Basic, Odorkor 8 KG & Primary and Odorkor 1 & 5 Primary & Junior High School (JHS). Private schools that benefited from the exercise included Christ Ebenezer Preparatory & JHS, SDA School, among many others.
Mr. Arthur said Zoomlion would need the full cooperation of the heads of the schools to ensure a successful exercise and said they were determined to complete everything before the reopening on June 29.
Mr. Arthur said many workers were working simultaneously under strict supervision.
At Christ Ebenezer Preparatory & JHS, the General Manager, Mrs. Rita Ofosu Yeboah, expressed gratitude to the government and Zoomlion for the exercise, saying “this is a step in the right direction because it is part of measures outlined by the government to contain the virus.”
She revealed that her school had already held a meeting with parents of pupils on the need to continue to observe the Covid-19 protocols.
“We are also expecting some Veronica buckets and other Covid-19 items from the government, and we have been assured that we will receive them before next week,” she added.
A teacher in charge of the JHS Department of SDA School, Theo Mensah, commended government for including private schools in the exercise, saying “we have already met with parents of the final year pupils and educated them on the Covid-19 preventive protocols. That is not all; we have also resolved to educate the pupils when they report back to school and to ensure that we all adhere to the Covid-19 safety protocols.”
A teacher at Odorkor 7 Basic School, Abdul-Wahab Haruna, said that the exercise would help keep the environment safe for the pupils.
Besides, Zoomlion had crews in the Weija-Gbawe Municipality, where some clusters of schools, including the Mallam Cluster of Schools, were disinfected.