The Education Minister, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, says the reopening dates and the academic calendar for basic schools will be announced soon.

Under the leadership of the Deputy Education Minister, Rev. Ntim Fordjour, a committee made up of headmasters and teachers was constituted to design an academic calendar for the next three years.

He hinted that a proposed academic calendar has thus been submitted already and assured that it will be released soon to the public.

His comment follows concerns raised by some parents that the absence of an academic calendar can jeopardise the studies of pupils in basic schools across the country.

“They have submitted the proposed calendar for the next three years. School opening dates will be announced in the next few days. We decided to do something different and I like it because now I can sleep,” Dr. Adutwum said.

According to him, the reason for setting up the committee was to resolve the challenges associated with academic calendars and bring a lasting solution to the uncertainty around re-opening dates.

“”So, what I decided to do, which had never happened before, was to set up a calendar committee made up of head teachers, headmasters and teachers across the country to come out with a calendar that will prevent all those kind of issues, so that it is not just coming from the Ministry or the Ghana Education Service (GES),” he explained in an interview with Daily Graphic.

Deputy Ranking Member on Parliament’s Education Committee, Dr. Clement Apaak earlier asserted that the delay in resumption of academic activities will affect children in public schools as their colleagues in private schools are already in school.

He, therefore, warned that if the situation is not resolved immediately, he will ensure that the Minority hauls the Education Minister before Parliament.

“If we’re going to have a strong and robust educational system, we have to pay a lot of attention to basic education. As we speak now, heads and teachers of public basic schools in Ghana do not know when public basic schools are going to re-open.”

“The original communication that many had, particularly those who were seeking transfer to new schools was that they should report before the 4th of this month, to suggest that the schools should have re-opened on the 4th, but that has not happened.”

“As we speak today, private basic schools across the country have reopened and yet we have no idea on exactly when public basic schools will reopen”, Dr Apaak stated.