About 20 Senior High Schools (SHS), both public and private, have been fumigated in the Eastern Region so far under the national fumigation exercise against insects and reptiles in SHSs currently ongoing across the country.
The exercise carried out by Zoomlion Ghana Limited under the auspices of the Ministry of Education would rid the schools of bedbugs, ants, mosquitoes and other harmful insects and reptiles and create a conducive atmosphere for academic work.
A total of 114 SHSs in the region would be fumigated by the end of the exercise.
Some of the schools that were fumigated on Thursday, included Pope John SHS, Seventh Day Adventist SHS, Ghana SHS, New Juaben Senior High Commercial School, Oti Boateng SHS, Koforidua Senior High Technical School, Oyoko Methodist SHS and Pentecost SHS, among others.
The Head of Corporate Communication for Zoomlion Ghana Limited, Emma Akyea-Boakye told the Ghanaian Times that the exercise would take between five to seven days to complete all the 114 SHSs in the region.
She explained that currently, the focus was on the fumigation to eradicate the bedbugs and other harmful insects and reptiles, adding that “at an appropriate time disinfecting will be done to target the coronavirus (COVID-19).”
The headmistress of Pope John SHS, Mrs Benedicta Foli was grateful for the exercise revealing that one of the school’s challenges was the bedbugs, which was giving students some skin diseases.
She added that the exercise was timely and beneficial and would create a conducive environment for students to enjoy academic work.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has also created some kind of fear among students hence, this exercise as well as other disinfestations that will be done would allay fear among students and would assure them of clean environment,” she said.
The headmistress expressed appreciation to the government and Zoomlion Ghana Limited for organising the exercise.
Another headmistress, Mrs Naomi Abena Nyarkoa Yeboah Abasi of SDA SHS was also grateful for the exercise and called on the government to provide more facilities for the schools to enable them to observe safety protocols when the schools reopen.
“Students are sometimes overcrowded in the dormitories, and so we plead that more facilities would be provided for us to ensure that they observe social distancing among other safety protocols when they return,” she said.
FROM AMA TEKYIWAA AMPADU AGYEMAN, KOFORIDUA
