A disinfection officer on duty at Accra Girls’
The Ghana Education Service (GES) has assured parents and guardians of final-year senior high school (SHS) students in the country that it will do everything humanely possible to protect the students against Covid-19.
The Greater Accra Regional Director of the GES, Monica Ankrah, yesterday gave the assurance during a mass disinfection exercise at Accra Girls’ SHS conducted by waste management giant Zoomlion Ghana Limited (ZGL), in collaboration with the Ministry of Education (MoE).
A recent outbreak of Covid-19 in some of the schools, including Accra Girls’ SHS, raised parents’ concerns, and the education authorities moved swiftly to restore calm and involved Zoomlion to continue its disinfection of school facilities to ensure the safety of the students.
Mrs. Ankrah said the school authorities had also been tasked to ensure that the students, together with the teaching and non-teaching staff members, observe strictly the Covid-19 safety protocols.
According to the regional director, the lives of the students are a priority to her outfit, encouraging parents to have confidence in the GES and the school authorities to “take very good care of their children.”
Besides, she assured the teaching and non-teaching staff members that the GES would continue to implement measures that would protect them from the disease.
“In the wake of reported Covid-19 cases in some of the schools, the best thing to do which we (GES) are doing is isolating and treating those infected, instead of sending them home where there is the high risk of them exposing their families and others to the virus,” she said, adding “isolation centres have been provided in the schools to facilitate treatment of students who would contract Covid-19.
Mrs. Ankrah disclosed that many of the students who tested positive for Covid-19 had recovered and had been discharged to their various schools, adding that so far only seven SHSs in the region had recorded cases of Covid-19, but many of the infected students had recovered.
The Head of Vector Control Unit, ZGL, Reverend Ebenezer Kwame Addae, said the reason for the disinfection was to ensure the school environment is safe for the students and the staff.
He emphasized that regular disinfection, together with the strict practising of the Covid-19 protocols, was key in combating the pandemic, saying “in addition to sanitizing the entire school, we also disinfected the high-risk areas of the school, including door handles, doors, dormitories, classrooms and others.”
Later, Reverend Addae, on behalf of ZGL, presented some gallons of disinfectants, microbial soaps and alcohol-based hand sanitizers to the GES to be given to the school and also announced that Zoomlion would attach at least two of their staff whose job would be to do regular disinfection and cleaning of especially high-risk spaces of the schools.