117 teachers, heads of second cycle institutions, heads of basic schools and School Health Education Programme (SHEP) coordinators drawn from 48 basic and one senior high school in the Upper Manya Krobo District in the Eastern Region were on Wednesday, July 22, 2020, trained at Asesewa on COVID-19 protocols intended to prepare them sufficiently on safety measures as part of actions to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus in schools.

The training workshop which was organized by the District Education Directorate in collaboration with the District Health Directorate and jointly supported by the Manya Krobo Covid-19 Emergency Fund and the Ensign College of Public Health offered the school heads and teachers the opportunity to be equipped with various covid-19 tips.

The training became necessary in the wake of the reopening of schools as the novel coronavirus persists and the need to ensure capacity building for school heads to supervise the observance of safety protocols in the schools.

The officer in Charge of District Training, Mr. Michael Ganyo as part of the training, aside enlightening the participants on the roles and responsibilities of teachers, headteachers, parents, and caregivers, also tasked the participants to ensure the regular supply of PPE while ensuring that thermometer guns are placed at vantage points at all times.

Hygiene education alongside the observance of all protocols including social distancing and wearing of face masks, he added, must also be ensured at all times and urged the conference of heads of basic schools to impress upon the district assembly to fumigate schools at least once in a month.

Health Promotion Officer at the Upper Manya Krobo District Health Directorate, Mr. Emmanuel Koomson took the participants through the overview of the novel coronavirus, its description and mode of transmission, testing strategies, key terms, district, and national response as well as all the safety protocols.

District School Help Education Program (SHEP) Coordinator for Upper Manya Krobo, Evans Tetteh Tamatey who demonstrated the appropriate way of wearing a face mask to the participants expressed optimism that the training offered the teachers would empower them in the discharge of their duties.

He said though the government had supplied all schools with the required PPE, the district covid-19 team headed by the District Chief Executive, Felix Nartey Odjao, had already supplied some items to the schools.

The SHEP coordinator said monitoring in the schools was effective with officials from the education directorate distributed into various groups to ensure that all protocols were effectively observed.

Director at the Upper Manya Krobo Directorate of the Ghana Education Service, Miss Deborah Babatunde in an interview after the event expressed her satisfaction at the outcome of the workshop and interest shown by the participants during the training.

She said the education directorate, as part of measures to curtail the spread of the virus, had supplied all schools in the district with the necessary PPE and deployed a number of its personnel to the various schools to monitor the use of the items and adherence to the safety protocols.

With no suspected case yet in any of the schools, she was hopeful school authorities would continue to observe and enforce all protocols to ensure that schools remain safe.

Though the director outlined some measures she said the directorate had put in place to combat the spread of the virus, she, however, urged the various school authorities and the larger community to cooperate more with the directorate to ensure the success of the COVID-19 campaign.