The Deputy Education Minister for Basic and Secondary has mounted a fresh defence to government’s easing of restrictions on educational activities.

Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum says contrary to a widespread argument, recalling final year students to school despite a consistent rise in Covid-19 numbers, was a tough decision for the president.

“Anyone who wants the easy way out would simply say I’m not opening schools,” Dr. Adutwum told Kojo Yankson on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show Wednesday.

However, research, he said, highlights the importance of education to socioeconomic development and so the government must find a way to “protect lives and get education to work.”

One of these ways is getting the final year students at each stage to transition to the next stage in their education trajectory, the Deputy Minister explained.

Dr Adutwum, however, admitted that managing education amid the Covid-19 pandemic is difficult, adding none of these decisions were taken easily.

He reiterated other government spokespersons’ arguments that the decision to recall a section of students was based series of consultations which include finding ways to prevent an outbreak in the schools.

Dr Adutwum when quizzed about the availability of personal protective equipment to students and staff of the schools, maintained that government has ensured that face masks reach every school.

This, in addition to mapping every school to a health facility and ensuring that school authorities follow proper protocols when there is a suspected case, are ways the government is managing the situation in schools, he says.

He added it is for this that the Head of KNUST Senior High was interdicted after a student died following hours of pain when teachers and other school authorities failed to him when he was ill for fears he might have been ailed by Covid-19.

Dr. Adutwum says strict GHS guidelines are being followed in schools like Accra Girls SHS where some 55 cases of pandemic has been recorded as of Tuesday.