Weeds have now taken over the compounds of some basic schools in the Western Region following the long closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Meanwhile, some of the school blocks have developed serious cracks on them.
With barely a week to the reopening, the situation in some schools visited by the Ghana News Agency showed no sign of readiness for school activities to resume as classrooms were still locked with rodents and debris and the compounds left unkempt.
Many of the schools that had some ongoing projects had stalled with the structures and some of the building materials left at the mercy of the weather while left over materials have been covered up by weeds.
Some of the schools visited include the Methodist Cluster at Agona in the Ahanta West Municipality which was a Polling Center for the recent general elections, Anaji MA Basic School and Effiakuma Methodist Primary and JHS in the Effia-Kwesimintsim Municipality.
Others are Bedu-Addo Methodist Primary and JHS, Woode Methodist Primary, Wiawso Road Key Primary and the Cluster of Schools near the Bompeh Senior High School all in the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis.
School parks which hitherto were used by members in the communities for training and other activities like funerals and durbars were no more whereas churches which had their services in the classrooms can no longer do so due to a ban on using the facilities, leaving the fields bushy and the classrooms untidy respectively.
Most schools visited had their classrooms filled with cobwebs, rodents and their fecal matter as well as reptiles like wall geckos and lizards.
Mr Benjamin Arko, Assemblyman for the Essikafo-Ambantem No. 2 Electoral Area, pointed out that arrangements have been made with stakeholders to clear all the weeds and make the campuses ready for teaching and learning to resume smoothly in the Area.
He suggested that Capitation Grant could be released to the schools, so that headteachers can use them to put the schools in order for proper and safe teaching and learning.
Mr Philip Evans Nyarko, Assemblyman for the Effia Electoral Area on his part, bemoaned that gates to the schools were locked, denying them access to the schools for any work to be made in them and said the pupils would be made to weed as usual when they returned.
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to infections and deaths around the world, and in Ghana as schools switched from holding in-person classes to virtual learning.
The President announced the indefinite closure of all schools, effective Monday, March 16, and with a ban on mass gathering as part the COVID-19 containment measures.
President Akufo-Addo in his address to the nation on 3rd January, 2021, to provide an update on COVID-19 pandemic, announced the reopening for all public and private basic schools, junior high, senior high and tertiary institutions across the country beginning from this month January.
Reopening for children in kindergarten, primary and junior high, in both private and public schools, will be back in school, while all SHS 1 students will start classes from 10th March, with all students embarking on a single-track academic calendar.
SHS 2 and SHS 3 will, however, return to school from 18th January.
Meanwhile, SHS 3 students in all schools will no longer run the double track system due to the expansion of infrastructure at the various senior high schools, over the last three (3) years.
Story: Seth Ameyaw Danquah
