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SHSs reopen today! … as heads pledge to support govt to enforce COVID-19 protocols after disinfection of schools by Zoomlion
The Headmasters and headmistresses of senior high schools (SHSs) and junior high schools (JHSs) in the Ashanti Region have given assurance of their readiness to support government to enforce the COVID-19 safety protocols in their schools to protect the final-year students to write their exit examinations.
They gave the assurance when Zoomlion Ghana Limited last Wednesday extended its nationwide disinfection of SHSs and JHSs to the Ashanti Region.
The exercise, collaboration between the Ministry of Education and Zoomlion Ghana Limited, was part of measures by the government to protect students and pupils in SHSs and JHSs respectively from contracting the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in his 10thh address to the nation on measures on COVID-19 directed final-year students of both JHSs and SHSs to go back to school.
In the case of final-year SHS students and Form Two Gold Track Students, they are expected to report back to school today while final-year JHS pupils are expected to resume on June 29.
The President’s directive is to allow final-years of SHSs and JHSs to be prepared to write their exit examinations.
The exercise in the Ashanti Region started in earnest on Tuesday, June 16, and was aimed at getting rid of germs, bacteria and viruses in the both the SHSs and JHSs.
Among the schools which benefited from the exercise were the Adventist Senior High School, Our Lady of Apostles School, Asem Cluster of Schools, Atonsu Bethel Presby Experimental School etc.
Addressing journalists at the Atonsu Bethel Presby Experimental School, the headmaster of the school, Rev. James Dapaah, indicated that his school was earnestly putting plans in place in readiness for the re-opening.
According to him, his school has 129 final-year pupils, adding that in observing the social distancing protocol, the pupils would be divided into groups and would be accommodated in the Form 1 and 2 classrooms.
He disclosed that the school had decided to put the pupils in groups of 25 to ensure that the social and physical distancing protocol was observed to protect them against COVID-19.
At the Asem Cluster of Schools in the Asokwa Municipal Assembly of Kumasi, the headmaster of the school, Mr Samuel Asare Kwarteng, hinted that his school was counting on the support of the government to make available the needed personal protection equipment.
The administrator of Our Lady of Apostle, Madam Anne Andoh, which school also benefited from the exercise, disclosed that her school as part of measures to contain the spread of the COVID-19 had engaged the services of a nurse who would be tasked to take temperatures of every student and staff members.
“And instead of 28 pupils in each class, we have resolved to reduce the number to 14,” she added.
Source: Ghanaian Times
The Speaker of the Algerian Parliament, Mr. Azouz Nasri, has arrived in Accra to take part in the Next Steps High-Level Consultative Conference on the implementation of the landmark United Nations Resolution on the Trafficking of Enslaved Africans.
He was received at the Jubilee Lounge, Kotoka International Airport, by Ghana’s First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Bernard Ahiafor.
The 3-day conference runs from June 17–19, 2026 in Accra. It will bring together parliamentary leaders, diplomats, civil society, and other key stakeholders to reflect on the implications of the UN Resolution for Africans and people of African descent worldwide.
Organisers say the meeting is aimed at advancing a coordinated global framework to strengthen advocacy around the Resolution and provide practical guidance for its implementation across member states.
The Resolution is described as a historic step toward acknowledging the transatlantic slave trade and addressing its lasting impact, with this conference marking one of the first high-level efforts to move it from declaration to action.
By Edem Mensah-Tsotorme
Aspiring National Chairman for the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Awentami Paul Afoko, has stated that the party has a unique opportunity to annex power in the 2028 elections.
According to him, the one person who has been on Ghana’s ballot paper for several elections will not be on the ballot paper in the 2028 elections, paving the way for the NPP to properly market its flagbearer Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, who is already a formidable force to reckon with and will go ahead to win the polls.
He argued that voters already know him, he’s battle-tested and ready to win.
He reiterated that the NPP will have a well-marketed candidate in the 2028 election and just as the party did in 2016 when it annexed power from a sitting government, the same can be done.
The Former NPP National Chairman, however, noted that this can be possible if the NPP unites as a unit and approach the elections with all the seriousness it deserves to ensure that its quest for victory does not become a mirage.
Mr Awentami Paul Afoko made this known when he met with Regional Executives, Patrons and Elders of the party in the Volta, Oti and Eastern Regions yesterday.
“For the first time we have a unique opportunity. At the time I put the New Plan for Power in place, we knew that the sitting president could go again and if he won another term, we would sit in opposition for twelve years.
We had to put a plan in place to make sure we come to power and we came to power. This time around, he will not be on the ballot paper and this offers us a unique opportunity, but without unity we will not get there,” he stated.
“As for unity, it is not negotiable. You can’t sit here and look at the lady sitting next to you and say I don’t like her so we can’t work together. We are working together for power, and if we let emotions get in the way, we lose” he said.
“Those of you who are old enough to remember Muhammad Ali the boxer, he is in the ring with you, he’s talking and calling you names then you get emotional and he takes advantage. Emotions won’t give us power. I didn’t get anything so I won’t support; no, let that go because it is in the past,” he noted.
Afoko, who is pushing his 3R Agenda of Reunite, Rebuild, and Recapture power, said the party must adopt a clear message to win back the confidence of Ghanaians and believes, with Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, whom he described as the right candidate will guarantee the NPP victory in the 2028 polls.
“For years I chose to work quietly behind the scenes, supporting the NPP in private,” Afoko said.
“But recent developments have compelled me to step forward. We need to get our party back into winning ways, and that starts with unity of purpose,” Afoko reiterated.
He framed the upcoming period as a test of whether NPP politics would mature or remain stuck in cycles of blame, but was optimistic that everyone who loves the party would come on board to realize the goal of making Dr Mahamudu Bawumia the next President of Ghana.
By: Jacob Aggrey
