President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is expected to update Ghanaians in a speech to the nation tonight on government moves towards the phased reopening of high schools and universities. Students start to return to campus starting tomorrow, Monday 15 June.
The speech, the president’s eleventh on the subject since his debut address on 12 March, will start airing at 8pm.
In his tenth address, delivered on Sunday 31 May, President Akufo-Addo announced plans for the return of final-year further and higher education students.
Students in the last year of higher education are poised to report to universities tomorrow to sit their examinations. Final-year senior high school students (SHS3) will be back on campus on 22 June, together with the SHS2 gold track cohort.
Final-year junior high school pupils (JHS) will return to school on 29 June.
“The Minister of Education, in the coming days, will outline in detail the specific guidelines for the safe reopening of our schools and universities,” the president said on 31 May.
Half-size
The subsequent announcement by the Ministry of Education on 2 June said that final-year SHS day students will be allowed to stay on campus with their boarding peers, starting on 22 June. The whole group will receive six weeks of tuition and then sit the West African Senior School Certificate Examination over five weeks.
Other restrictive measures guiding resumption of normal activity for the academic year cover class sizes. There are to be no more than 25 SHS students per class; JHS class sizes will be restricted to 30.
Universities will halve their class sizes. Final-year students of education or training institutions other than those managed by the Ministry of Education will also return to campus to sit their terminal exams on 22 June.
Approximately 200,000 people will be affected by the return to campus, including 128,000 students.
Education experts have described the decision as timely and said it will ensure there is no lasting damage to the flow of the academic year.
Places of worship start to open again
The president’s tenth address also outlined measures governing the reopening of churches and mosques.
Sources close to Asaase Radio tell us that President Akufo-Addo’s eleventh speech will make another significant announcement relating to direct public health measures seeking to contain the spread of the coronavirus disease.
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* Watch the live stream of the president’s speech here.
