COVID-19: We want to go back to school – Chorkor children beg Akufo-Addo

Some school children in Chorkor, a fishing community in the Greater Accra Region, have appealed to President Akufo-Addo to reopen schools as they are unable to benefit from online teaching.

The President placed a ban on all social gatherings and shut down schools as part of measures to contain the spread of coronavirus in the country.

The government, however, advised heads of schools across the country to turn to e-learning platforms as a means to continue teaching and learning.

But children in underprivileged areas like Chorkor say they could not benefit from the online teaching classes since they did not have access to the internet. They want the government to reopen the schools for them to continue learning.

“I don’t have any internet connection so I can’t learn,” one of the children told JoyNews.

Another said, “I just watch TV and play at home so I’m begging the government to open our schools so that we can go back to school”.

President Akufo-Addo on Sunday, March 15, 2020, announced the closure of all schools across the country.

This was after the country had recorded six COVID-19 cases. The closure affected all basic, second-cycle and tertiary institutions across the 16 regions of the country.

The shut down was to take effect on Monday, March 16, 2020.

All borders of the country were closed as part of measures to contain the spread of coronavirus in the country.

Ghana’s COVID-19 case count

As of April 24, 2020, Ghana’s coronavirus cases had hit 1,279 from an initial 1,154 recorded on Tuesday.

In all, 134 persons have fully recovered with 10 others succumbing to the virus.

This was contained in an update provided by the Ghana Health Service on its official website dedicated to COVID-19.

According to the data provided by the website, two more regions had joined the list of coronavirus-infected regions in Ghana.

The latest infected regions were Oti and Western North Regions. This brings the total number of infected regions to 12 out of 16.

Oti Region joined the list with 13 infections whiles Western North joined with one.