Correspondence from Western Region:

Some Junior High School students and teachers in the Western Region have expressed their unhappiness over the delay of the delivery of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE's) by the government.

After ordering the closure of schools in the country on March 16, 2020, in the wake of Coronavirus pandemic, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, three weeks ago, directed final year Junior High School students to resume classes on Monday, 29, 2020 to prepare for the final exams.

This was after he gave earlier dates for final year tertiary and Senior High School students to return to the classroom.

The president promised to give three nose masks each to students, non-teaching and teaching staff. Veronica buckets, hand sanitizers, liquid soaps, thermometer guns, tissue papers were also to be distributed to schools.

A visit to some schools in various municipalities in the Western region on Monday revealed that the PPEs were yet to be provided. Some students and teachers were seen without face masks.

GhanaWeb also observed that some schools have managed to station some Veronica buckets at strategic points to be used by the students and teachers.

At one of the schools visited, final year students were asked to go home before 1:00pm due to the unavailability of PPEs.

Some students who spoke to GhanaWeb on the basis of anonymity said they were told that the government was going to give them nose masks so they came to school without one.

"We were told that government is going to give us nose masks so we didn't ask our parents to buy some for us but when we got to the school the story was different. We are now afraid. We tried to go home and buy some but we were not allowed to go", they expressed their grievances.

They, therefore, appealed to the government to speed up the process and provide them with the nose masks and other preventive items.

Some teachers who also spoke on the condition of anonymity said the delay in delivery of the PPEs has affected their activities.

"We are not safe so we are appealing to government to bring the items as soon as possible so that we can give it to our students and use some to protect ourselves," they pleaded.

In a telephone conversation, the Western Regional Director of Education, Mr. Dankwa Akufo-Addo said the Regional Directorate is yet to receive the PPEs for onward distribution.

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