by Linda Straker
- Government decided all schools to reopen on 5 September 2022
- Teachers unable to meet to plan for school year 2022/2023 at 9 schools affected by ongoing construction
- Those schools scheduled to be complete in time for reopening
Education Minister Senator David Andrew said on Tuesday that although construction work is ongoing at several schools in the public sector, the Government has decided to allow all schools to reopen on 5 September 2022.
“There’s also ongoing repairs in some schools, but nothing that would affect the ability of the schools to welcome and receive students safely on Monday, 5th September. So we are happy to report that… whatever other works that are taking place will not interrupt the schools,” he announced during a government news conference on Tuesday, 30 August 2022.
“This comes to me based on information from our project officers, working in collaboration with the Ministry of Works and the engineers that are responsible for schools’ repairs, so I am ably guided by that.”
He disclosed that as of 29 August, 9 schools were affected by teachers being unable to meet in schools to plan for the reopening of the school year 2022/2023. Michaelmas, the first term of the school year, runs from September to December 2022. “Because of the construction and some of the repair work taking place at some of those sites, we were not able to accommodate at some of those sites, so some staff came up with ways to deal with the challenges.”
Minister Andrew explained that the work on the 9 schools is scheduled to be complete in time for reopening. “The good news is, based on the advice we have from the engineers and project teams, all of those schools will be ready for opening on Monday, 5th September 2022, providing that nothing untoward shall happen.”
The Education Minister, appointed 2 months ago after the National Democratic Congress (NDC) won the 23 June 23 General Election, disclosed that there are cleanup teams for all the schools that the Ministry of Mobilisation, Implementation, and Transformation.
