The Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS) says the rescheduling of the reopening day for Senior High School (SHS) finalists is to prevent congestion.

Yacoub Abubakar, the president of Conference said it does not augur well to congest the schools amidst the Covid-19 pandemic.

"We drew the attention of the Ghana Education Service (GES) management that given the numbers that we have in the school and with the break that we were going to attend, we suggested that they should let one batch of Form 1' students stay at home so that all the form 3s could come to school.

"The Form 2 gold [track] will also be in school and a portion of the form 1s that we can contain in the school given the numbers that we currently have at our respective schools," he said.

He added, "Alternatively, we said they could shift the reopening date of Form 3's further to the date that they have currently announced, the 5th of May to enable us to contain all the Form 1's that will be in school and then the gold Form 2's to move on.

"That way we could have the students in school and be able to observe the Covid-19 protocols because the congestion would not have been a serious issue with us."

The Ghana Education Service announced on Tuesday morning that it has rescheduled the reopening for Senior High School (SHS) Form 3 students to May 5.

In a Facebook post, it said this was after management considered a proposal from the Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS).

The Service said, “This applies to all Form 3 students (single track and double track schools). Further details will be announced. All other arrangements on the calendar remain unchanged.”

Some students and parents have, however, expressed frustration over the development and the late announcement of the latest directive.

According to some parents and students who spoke to JoyNews, they had already reached the school before they learnt of the postponement.