The Volta Regional Director of Zoomlion Ghana Limited, Solomon Denyo, has assured the Ministry of Education (MoE), the Ghana Education Service (GES), teachers, parents and all stakeholders in the education space in the Volta and Oti Regions that his outfit will complete the disinfection of private and public schools in the two regions before schools re-open on Monday, June 22, 2020.
In order to finish the exercise on time, he disclosed that Zoomlion has engaged external sub-contractors.
He said logistics deployment, mixing and application of chemicals had been executed in a professional manner by their officials, noting that they have enjoyed great collaboration from all stakeholders.
Mr Denyo revealed that his company would be disinfecting about 107 senior high schools (SHSs) in the two regions against Covid-19.
This, he said, would cover all facilities and open spaces in the SHSs.
Wallace Academy SHS – a private SHS – in the Volta Region, was the first point of call to receive disinfecting from a crew of Zoomlion field officers.
Speaking to journalists on the sideline of the exercise, the Proprietor of Wallace Academy SHS, Maxwell Wallace Afram, commended the Ministry of Education as well as GES and Zoomlion for including private schools in the nationwide exercise.
The outbreak of Covid-l9 in Ghana, he said, has taken a severe toll on private schools.
According to him, his school did not collect school fees from parents before the abrupt end of academic work due to the pandemic.
As a result, the proprietor of Wallace Academy SHS said payment of administrative expenses, workers’ salaries and other expenditures have become a huge problem.
He added that his school had to go for loan facility in to be able to pay their expenses.
Some schools, according to him, were not paying their teachers’ salaries while others were doing part-payment of salaries.
“Regrettably, some teachers have lost their jobs as a result of the closure of schools occasioned by the Covid-19 pandemic,” Mr Afram lamented.
The Holy Spirit College of Education was the next institution to benefit from the exercise.
After the exercise, the Principal of the Holy Spirit College of Education, Gabreal Freeborn Koku Wortodzor, told journalists that the college would print coronavirus safety protocols and paste them on the entrance of the school and at vantage points to serve as constant reminders to both the students and teachers.
Veronica buckets, according to him, would also be placed at various points in the school to encourage regular hand washing while every student would be given an alcohol-based hand sanitiser.
Students and teachers who do not wear nose masks would not be allowed in the school, he warned.
According to Mr Wortodzo, a shift system would be run for the final-year students numbering about 120, adding that their tables and chairs would be arranged two metres apart in line with observing the social distancing protocol.