Some Junior High School students and teachers in the Western Region have expressed their unhappiness over the delay of the delivery of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE's) by the government.All Junior High Schools and Senior High Schools in the country were asked to close down on March 16, 2020, in the wake of Coronavirus pandemic.

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But, President Akufo-Addo three weeks ago directed these schools to resume learning activities on Monday, 29, 2020 to prepare the final year students to write their exit exams.As a result, President Akufo-Addo promised to give three nose masks each to non-teaching and teaching staff; Veronica buckets, hand sanitizers, liquid soaps, thermometer guns, tissue papers among others to the schools.

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GhanaWeb on Monday, June 29, visited some Junior High Schools in the Jomoro Municipality, Nzema East Municipality, Ellembelle District, Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly, and Ahanta West Municipality to monitor the resumptionof basic schools.It was revealed that none of the schools visited had been provided any PPEs. It was observed during the visit that some students and teachers were seen without face masks.

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GhanaWeb also observed that some schools have managed to station some Veronica buckets at strategic places to be used by the students and teachers to wash their hands.At one of the schools visited, final year students were asked to go home before 1 pm due to the unavailability of PPEs.

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Speaking to some students on condition of anonymity, they said they were told that the government was going to give them nose masks so they came to school without one."We were told that government is going to give us nose masks so we didn't ask our parents to buy some for us but when we got to the school the story was different. We are now afraid.

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We tried to go home and buy some but we were not allowed to go", they expressed their grievances.They, therefore, appealed to the government to speed up the process and provide them the nose masks and other preventive items.Some teachers who also spoke on the condition of anonymity said the delay of the PPEs promised by the government has affected their activities.

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"We are not safe so we are appealing to government to bring the items as soon as possible so that we can give it to our students and use some to protect ourselves," they pleaded.In a telephone conversation, the Western Regional Director of Education, Mr. Dankwa Akufo-Addo said the PPEs are yet to be received by the Regional Directorate for onward distribution as soon as possible. Source: www.ghanaweb.com

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