COVID 19: AN OPPORTUNITY TO RESHAPE EDUCATION IN GHANA-GNAT

The President of the Ghana Association of Teachers has said that the coronavirus pandemic is a major opportunity to reshape learning and teaching in the country.

According to her, the reshaping of teaching could be done through the integration of pedagogies with incorporated “digital learning and the prioritization of Education In Emergencies (EIE) in education budgeting and planning”.

“GNAT further opines that there is a great need for psycho-social support for parents, learners, and teachers during and after COVID-19, to help them cope in the school environment and minimize poor attendance and dropout rates, with particular attention to girls, persons living with disability and children who may be at risk of child labor,” Mrs. Larsen said in Accra last Thursday when she launched the Impact

She added that the impact assessment contained the thoughts of the association on the pandemic and some recommendations to help turn a life around during and after COVID-19.

It is handy, comprehensive, and a must-read. We hope all who lay their hands on it would find it useful and relevant,” she said.

Mrs. Larsen also noted that it was a known fact that the pandemic had taken the whole world, including Ghana, by storm, wreaked havoc everywhere and brought life to a standstill, adding that “in Ghana, we continue to see a rise in the numbers of infection, the isolation of the infected and the deaths which have characterized this pandemic”.

Indeed, she said, the country had undergone lockdowns in some areas, restriction of movement and the wearing of personal protective equipment (PPE), hitherto not part of its culture.

“Trade and commerce, religious and social activities, and our area of concern — education – have all come to a standstill.

We are aware of the interventions that have been put in place to curtail the spread of the pandemic and abate its effects.

We are aware of the stress on hygienic practices which we were made to go through as children in our school days but neglected in our adult lives,” Mrs. Larsen said.

Of all the issues related to the pandemic, she said GNAT had neither been a silent listener nor a passive observer and had made its voice heard when it mattered most in radio and television discussions.

GNAT, she said, had even offered its facilities to agencies and bodies engaged in the fight against the pandemic.

“We have gone further to conduct an impact assessment of the coronavirus and its impact on our area of concern, education. This document is published in the form of a booklet …which we present to the Ghanaian public,” she said.

For his part, the General Secretary of GNAT, Mr. Thomas Musah, said the association had found it necessary to take a look at the impact of the pandemic on the education sector and how from its perspectives, the country could combat it and how education could be run when things settled.

Source: Graphiconline