Public and private final year Junior High School (JHS) pupils in the Tema West Municipality on Monday returned to school to prepare for the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) amidst the Covid-19 pandemic.

This comes in the wake of the President’s directive for all final year JHS pupils, teaching and non-teaching staff and invigilators across the country to return to school in preparedness for the BECE.

The Tema West Educational Directorate has a total of 21 Public Junior High Schools with a population of 1,858 BECE candidates, and 91 Private Junior High Schools with a population of 1791 BECE candidates.

Ahead of the reopening, all schools in the Municipality had been fumigated and disinfected.

Mr Francis Steel, Tema West Municipal Education Director, who led a team to monitor preparedness on the first day of reopening, indicated that pupils and teachers had each received two washable and reusable facemasks and a bottle of hand sanitizer.

He said government, through the Ministry of Education, has provided additional Veronica Buckets, liquid soaps and thermometer guns to schools as part of measures to curtail the spread of the virus and to keep pupils and teachers safe.

As part of these measure, Mr Steel said head teachers have been educated on safety measures and pupils sensitized on the preventive measure including; the appropriate ways of wearing face mask and frequent washing of hands with soap under running water.

At the Sakumono School Complex and the Mexico JHS, where the Covid-19 protocols were being strictly adhered to, the Director of Education instructed the pupils to adhere strictly to the COVID-19 protocols.

“It is not safe to touch your mask whiles wearing it to avoid contamination and before removing it, ensure you remove the loops from behind the ears without touching the front of the mask” he further advised.

The Ghana Education Service in the Municipality, he said, was effectively collaborating with the Ghana Health Service to ensure the safety and wellbeing of pupils and teachers as they go about their academic work.