NDC questions reason for political activism in schools
The National Democratic Congres (NDC) has questioned the access to schools for political purposes, while parents have been barred from visiting their wards.
The party finds it unacceptable that the schools meant for academic work will be the grounds of other purposes.
As part of measures to contain the COVID-19 infection, parents have been disallowed from gaining access to their children as they prepare for their finals examination.
At the same time, the Electoral Commission (EC) released a plan to have eligible students register for the new voter registration cards.
Subsequently, the two-day registration exercise in the over 700 schools throughout the country have been done and completed.
However, the NDC, at a press conference addressed by its National Communications Officer, Sammy Gyamfi, described the re-opening of schools as “premature”.
The party sees the action “by President Akufo Addo without mass testing of students, teachers and workers” and “failure to put in place and enforce appropriate safety measures in the re-opened schools” as a cause for the spread of infections in schools.
The party holds the view that the schools have become centres for political campaigns by the NPP “as was seen over the weekend, when the National Youth Organizer of the NPP, Henry Nana Boakye led a team to campaign in some Senior High Schools in the Ashanti region.”
“ Is it not cruel, that at a time over 10 of the re-opened Senior High Schools have recorded infections on their campuses, and parents have been prevented from visiting their wards as a so-called COVID-19 precautionary measure, President Akufo Addo has opened the same schools, for his party NPP and the Electoral Commission, who prioritizes political power than human lives, to go in there and engage in political activities which have the tendency to endanger the lives of our innocent SHS students”.
The NDC has called on the public to “condemn the action of the Nana Boakye for leading the shameful agenda of making SHS their hotbed of political activity during these perilous times”, he said.
“We further demand that in consonance with GES regulations, the Headmaster of that Senior High School in Kumasi should be interdicted immediately in order to serve the ends of justice,” he added.
The party is also demanding the “immediate closure of all re-opened schools which were hurriedly re-opened under the guise of facilitating the writing of WASSCE, just to make room for the Electoral Commission to register SHS students on their school campuses”.
The NDC has also entreated the government to provide the necessary Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for health workers and force measures to curtail the further spread.
After four months since the country recorded its index case, 24,518 infections have been detected, with 139 deaths and 20, 187 recoveries/discharge.