The Ghana Education Service (GES) has revealed Junior High Schools will run on a semester basis after schools reopen on January 15.

Speaking at a press conference, Director-General of the GES, Prof Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa said that this is to enable the schools to catch up with contact hours lost in 2020 as a result of the closures.

He revealed that form three students will begin their first semester from January 18 to June 11 and go on a break.

“They (the students) will come back for the second semester, 6th July and then write their exams. For form one and form two (school begins) 18th January to 11th June and then they break. They will come back for their second semester and they finish on 7th December.”

Prof Opoku-Amankwa added that GES is dedicated to ensuring the basic health protocols are observed.

He added that the Service will provide face masks, veronica buckets among others to ensure students are being hygienic.

This comes after President Akufo-Addo announced that all students from kindergarten to Junior High School will return to school on January 15.

According to him, government has drawn lessons from reopening of some sections of educational institutions in 2020, thus, it is in a better position to commence a new school year.

Professor Opoku-Amankwa said that because a semester will run for a longer period, there will be mid-semester breaks.

“So, we will have March 15 to 19, 2021 for the first-semester mid-semester break and the second-semester mid-semester break will be from September 6 to 10, 2021.”

Meanwhile, students from kindergarten and primary will still run on the trimester system.

“School will start for Primary and KG from January 18 to April 16. They will then have April 17 to May 3 as their break period.”

“Their second term will begin from May 4 to August 6 and then they will have their break will be from August 7 to September 5. Their third term will begin from September 6 to December 10.”