Ahead of the reopening of Basic Schools on Monday, June 29, 2020, Zoomlion Ghana Limited yesterday began a nationwide disinfection of schools to create a conducive environment for teaching and learning activities to take place.
The waste management company was expected to disinfect 4,500 schools in the Greater Accra Region alone before next week Monday, Mr Ernest Morgan Acquah, Greater Accra General Manager of Zoomlion told journalists in an interview.
This, he said, was in line with government’s directives to ensure the health and safety of basic school pupils and teachers.
It is recalled that academic activities in basic schools in Ghana came to a halt few months ago, in the wake of the outbreak of the coronavirus disease, also known as (COVID-19).
Since then, some schools started online teaching with the aim to cover the syllabi for the third term.
More than 500,00,000 final year pupils sitting for the 2020 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) are expected back in school next Monday to prepare for the examination which begins in September.
Zoomlion, is therefore, expected to complete spraying of classrooms, staff common rooms, library, washrooms and premises of beneficiary schools by Sunday, June 28, 2020.
At Christ Ebenezer Preparatory School, Mrs Rita Ofosu Yeboah, General Manager of the school said reopening of basic schools could help prepare the final year students for the upcoming BECE examination, noting that most pupils from that school did not participate in online learning introduced by other schools during the lockdown.
On observance of preventive measures against the spread of COVID-19, she said management had already educated Parents’ Teacher Association (PTA) and pupils on social distancing, hand washing with soap and use of face masks.
She said the school was waiting to receive face masks, alcohol-based sanitisers and paper tissue.
But the story was different at the Odorkor SDA Basic School with Mr Theo Mensah, a teacher at the school stating that Personnel Protective Equipment (PPE) such as Veronica buckets, liquid soap, hand sanitisers and paper tissue had been procured for use by pupils and teachers from Monday, June 29, 2020.
Mr Abdul Wahab Haruna, a teacher at Odorkor “7” Basic School told journalists he was glad that government had fulfilled its promise to disinfect basic schools prior to the resumption of academic activities.
Zoomlion Ghana Limited had earlier this year, carried out disinfection of markets, lorry stations, drains, schools including specialised facilities such as the Akropong School for the Blind, universities, senior high schools, technical institutions and many others.
The company was executing the project under the auspices of the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development.
BY MALIK SULLEMANA
