To some, Akufo-Addo had broken a sacrilegious rule to announce that final year students in the Senior High Schools were going back to school in preparation towards their final exams.
Opposition elements were exasperated, saying it was a suicidal mission for the students to be sent back to school despite the enhanced safety measures put in place to safeguard them.
Some parents were roiled by the suggestion, saying it was the height of insensitivity on the part of the Government to risk the lives of the children. Some parents threatened to remove their wards from their schools citing the dangers associated with the directive.
Some teacher unions’ leadership joined the bandwagon and kicked heavily against the suggestion saying it was like sending the students into a warzone with no protective shields.
A so-called coalition of PTAs with national characteristics sprang up to also vent its spleen on the Government, urging the President to abandon the idea of reopening schools for the final year students.
The likes of Kwesi Pratt and co asked Ghana to imitate Nigeria which had announced that it would not put the lives of their students in danger by opening schools due to COVID-19.
One thing ran through their vehement opposition to the announcement; the lives of the children were paramount and that they staying home was more important than sending them to their deaths.
Their anger was aggravated when some students were diagnosed with COVID-19 infections, something they claimed loudly justified their stiff oppositions to the planned reopening of schools for the final year students.
President Akufo-Addo, in his 16th address to the nation, amongst other things, said kids from kindergarten to JHS 1 are to remain out of school till January 2021.
This development has sparked another bout of criticisms from the very people who said it would be sending the S.H.S students to their early graves if schools were reopened while COVID-19 was still around.
For some strange reasons, these same people now contend that private schools would be greatly affected if KG to J.H.S 1 are closed.
Now, they are not harping on the COVID-19 scourge which they said would kill the older S.H.S students but want the younger KG to JHS 1 pupils to be allowed back to school.
When principles are thrown outside the window, inconsistencies take center stage. It is bad to allow S.H.S students back to school but there is something wrong allowing KG to JHS 1 students to stay at home because of COVID-19.
