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A Researcher at the Kumasi Center for Collaborative Research, Dr. Micheal Owusu says the biggest challenge with the reopening of schools would be at the kindergarten level where the children don’t know how to handle themselves and have no regard for the COVID 19 safety protocols.
According to this researcher, if a kindergarten child loses a sense of smell or taste, it would be difficult to know because the child cannot communicate.
“For me I’m very much concerned about the kindergarten, if they lose their sense of smell, taste or have fever, it’s the teacher or parent who have to touch the body and know this child has fever”, he stated.
His comment comes on the back of the President’s directive for the reopening of all schools beginning on January 9. According to this researcher, if Ghana is going all full blown reopening of schools, then it comes with it own advantages in helping the children but also come with a lot of responsibilities where all hands must be put on deck and to ensure the disease is managed.
He said vigilance and pro activeness is very important. “The need for us to recognize the symptoms very early and collect the samples and take them to the lab. If it’s detected early, then you have a better chance of recovering but if you have a late detection, then you will have a problem”.
Dr Michael Owusu placed the responsibilities on parents because they understand their children better. He said the Ghana Health Service must by now have guidelines on how teachers can communicate and see how best some of the messages can be broken down to their level whiles he expects the Ghana Education Service, parents, doctors and nurses at the sick bay and teachers must be communicating to make sure everybody is speaking the same language.
By Deborah Dougan.
