The Yilo Krobo Municipal Education Directorate has launched a school reopening campaign ahead of the new academic year next October in an effort to inform parents about the revised opening date and promote school enrollment.

The Ghana Education Service (GES) decided to take this proactive measure by actively engaging parents, guardians, and community leaders in response to their recognition that education played a pivotal role in shaping the future of young minds.

Somanya Anglican Primary and JHS, Somanya Methodist Primary and (Junior High School) JHS, Abrewankor D/A Primary and JHS, Wurapong Primary and JHS, Somanya State School Primary and JHS, and several other schools took part.

The exercise took place in all 109 basic schools across the municipality, where students were seen marching through the streets of Somanya with an inscription on placards like, ‘Basic School is Compulsory’; ‘Don’t Drop Out of School’; ‘Educate your Wards’, among others.

Mr Solomon Sackitey, Public Relations Officer of the Yilo Krobo Directorate of GES, said the exercise was organised in three folds: to create awareness that children of school-going age should go to school and to draw public attention to the revised academic calendar.

The exercise he said would put pressure on parents whose children, particularly those in rural communities, and were not in school, to begin enrolling them in school, saying, ‘It’s a strategy to encourage more children to go to school.’

‘At the basic school level, our academic calendar has been from September to July, then, August will be their long vacation, then, September will begin the new academic year,’ he said, adding, ‘but when COVID-19 came, schools reopened in January, so, from 2021, the academic calendar has been from January to December, and now, we want to go back to the old academic calendar.’

Mr Sackitey stressed that GES would begin the 2023/2024 academic year in October next month and called on parents and the public to enroll their children.

‘You shouldn’t wait till January but consider October next month, so, it’s a form of creating awareness among the public.’

He also said parents should wait for their wards to be six years old before enrolling them at the kindergarten level, as there had been a change in policy to that effect.

‘The Ghana Education Service School System has incorporated kindergarten education, so, a child should enroll in kindergarten one at the age of four because it prepares them to be well-equipped for the next academic level,’ he added.

The Yilo Krobo Municipal Director of GES, Rev. Arthur Bilson, emphasised that, ‘basic is now free, compulsory, and universal, so parents should make sure their children are enrolled in school.’

He stated that the education directorate embarked on a house-to-house campaign to educate both children and parents on the importance of education and the new Education Act.

He hinted that, ‘a time is coming when parents will be apprehended for not enrolling their wards in school.’

Source: Ghana News Agency