The Builsa-South MP has accused President Akufo-Addo of not being forthcoming with his claims of consulting relevant stakeholders before taking major decisions with regards to education.

This, according to Dr Clement Abasinaab Apaak, is because all major players in the educational sector have alleged being sidelined when it comes to important deliberations.

Arguing his point in a detailed post on his Facebook wall, the MP said the announcement by the President that a new academic year for pre-tertiary students will begin in January 2021, comes weeks before the 10-member committee inaugurated by the Minister for Education submits its report on safety precautions for the reopening of schools.

“Now that the President has announced the reopening of schools way ahead of the date the committee was expected to submit its recommendations to the Education Minister, September 21, 2020, for onward submission to the President, what was/is the relevance of the committee?

“If President Akufo-Addo had no need for the outcome of the work of the committee why was it formed? Should the committee not be disbanded immediately?” he quizzed.

Just like Parliament’s Committee on Education, the MP further alleged that groups like the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) and Ghana National Council of Private Schools (GNACOPS) were also not engaged, raising the question of who the relevant stakeholders being consulted by the President are.

“If NAGRAT and the Ghana National Council of Private Schools were not consulted, and the School Reopening Committee formed at the behest of the President, is yet to present its report, which “relevant stakeholders” were consulted?

The Deputy Ranking Member on the Education Committee of Parliament was also convinced the government is not adequately prepared to meet the October 5 deadline given for JHS 2 and SHS 2 students to return to campus.

“What is the guarantee that all the schools would be fumigated and adequate PPEs deployed before the students arrive in school? These questions are informed by the inability of government to ensure that all schools were fumigated and PPEs available to schools before students reported to school when final year SHS and JHS students went back to school to prepare for thier examinations.

“There were several confirmed reports of some schools being fumigated after students arrived on campus, in some cases days after.

“In the case of PPEs, some schools got supplies over a week after the final year students returned to prepare to write their examinations a couple of weeks ago. This was in spite of a promise by the government to fumigate and supply the PPEs before the students arrived,” he said.