A child-centred organisation, Child Rights International (CRI), has asked the Ghana Education Service (GES) to hasten slowly in taking a decision on whether to close Senior High Schools because of the recent positive COVID-19 cases recorded in some schools.
The country closed all schools at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in March, and only recently partially reopened for final-year Junior High School (JHS) pupils and Senior High School students to resume and prepare for their exit exams. The majority of children in basic and high schools are currently home and receiving tuition via government-arranged e-learning programmes shown on TV.
However, positive COVID-19 cases recorded in some High School in Accra, Central Region and other parts of the country have led to calls for closure of the schools.
Any such decision, the CRI said, should be based on credible medical evidence that shows students are more vulnerable being in school amid the COVID-19 pandemic than at home.
“Since the inception of COVID-19 in the country, Ghana has not carried out any medical research on children in order to understand the behaviour pattern of the coronavirus among children.
“Currently, the country does not have data patterns regarding the state of children during COVID-19. We do not have data on children who have died of COVID-19 or are severely ill with the virus, and the rate of transmission among children,” said a statement issued and signed by the Executive Director of CRI, Mr. Bright Appiah.
Breakdown
CRI said although GHS and its relevant stakeholders had done well to provide a detailed breakdown of COVID-19 cases in Ghana on its website, there is no mention of the number of children infected or their ages and other relevant information.
Per the statement, “Lack of information on this group is worrying, especially in the light of reopening secondary and Junior High Schools to allow students write their final examinations amid recent reports of students in several schools contracting the virus after returning to school.
“We are requesting that information on children regarding the virus be given paramount attention and reporting exclusively on the GHS website, to allow parents, caregivers and other relevant stakeholders plot a child-specific, targeted plan aimed at protecting children during these times,” it said.
CRI said Child Protection remains a major concern as countries “are putting in efforts to deal with the effect of COVID-19”.
Emulate good examples
Using the case of some developed nations, CRI stated that countries like China, Germany, the UK, Netherlands, Spain, USA and Italy made deliberate efforts to understand the behaviour pattern of COVID-19 both socially and medically.
“The pattern shows that COVID-19 transmissions among children are significantly low. In Italy 70% of community members were tested; out of that, people with positive cases were 2.6%. However, there were no positive cases among children below 10-years and a 1.2% positive rate in 11 to 20-year olds.
“In some cases children do not transmit the disease among their age cohort, but most children are asymptomatic. It generally suggests that transmission among children is very low,” the statement said.
The CRI noted that COVID-19 is a public health issue, and therefore actions and inactions of State institutions must be informed by evidence so that the behaviour of authorities is not borne out speculation and myths. “Children must be given the maximum protection in order not to see a surge of COVID-19 in Ghana,” it added.
The post Closure of schools must be informed by medical evidence – CRI appeared first on The Business & Financial Times.
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