Former Education Minister Prof. Jane Naana Opoku Agemang has called on government to address the inequalities in schools before reopening them.

Speaking on Joy Prime's Prime Morning show she said the unequal distribution of basic infrastructure in schools across the country has become even more visible now with the pandemic.

“During my time I remember going to thousands of schools because I wanted to see the schools on an ordinary day, when nobody was looking, when it wasn’t speech day and my visit wasn’t announced.

"And I saw many things and they have become more visible even as we are faced with a pandemic now.

“You go to a school and there are no washrooms so you ask the teachers ‘ok, what do the children do?’ then they tell you, ‘oh they go to the bush’ so you ask yourself what kind of education are these children getting,” she said.

She stated that at a point when basic handwashing facilities and clean washrooms have become major priorities across the world; it has become even “more urgent than usual” to solve all those problems before schools reopen.

Prof Opoku Agyemang also emphasised on the need for the equal provision of health facilities such as sick bays and dispensaries in public schools across the country.

She lamented the lack of these basic facilities in some schools and cautioned that all of government's efforts in curbing the spread of the virus might be thwarted if the virus begins to spread in those schools.

"In my experience, I've been to schools, even boarding schools, where some of them didn't even have first aid boxes, can you imagine? And so no wonder when the child has malaria, headache, then the child has to go on public transportation to go all the way home to get cured.

Meanwhile, "there are schools that also have infirmaries, sick bays, properly housed by nurses with doctors on call, so it is not the same."

"So the issue of inequality is critical now and everybody can get this illness as we are told. So we need to build the country, we need to build education from the bottom up, it cannot be from the top down," she said.

Prof. Agyemang also added that aside the unequal distribution of basic facilities in  schools across the country, a much closer look at the inequality in basic schools should also be taken into consideration.

According to her, most public basic schools lack an environment which is conducive and appealing to students consequently leading to the marginalisation of public basic school pupils among others.

“So in planning, that area should be of critical importance to us, it should be an area that we prioritise. Children like beautiful things I keep saying, regardless where they are coming from...” She said.

Her concerns follow government's decision to lay out guidelines for the reopening of schools across the country soon, in consultation with stakeholders.