The Education Ministry says all foreign students from countries which have been hit by the Ebola will be screened before tertiary institutions are given the green light to re-open.<\/p>\n
The Minister of Education, Professor Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang on Tuesday directed heads of tertiary institutions across the country to delay the re-opening of schools by two weeks.<\/p>\n
The decision is one of the measures being put in place to prevent an outbreak of the Ebola disease in Ghana.<\/p>\n
It was\u00a0on the advice of the inter-ministerial committee on the Ebola Virus.<\/p>\n
Deputy Education Minister in-charge of the tertiary education, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa in an interview with Citi News<\/strong> said although the academic calendar may be disrupted, the postponement is in the best interest of the country.<\/p>\n He gave indications that the Education Ministry has room to adjust the academic calendar.<\/p>\n According to him, Ghana has become the preferred education destination due to the \u201cstability and reliability of our academic calendar but the government is not ready sacrifice that even as we protect ourselves from the Ebola disease.\u201d<\/p>\n The deputy Minister insisted that the stability of the academic calendar must be protected at all cost because the presence of international students in Ghana\u2019s universities \u201cdoes a lot for our economy.\u201d<\/p>\n Their fees, he said \u201chelps in the subventing indigenous students and poor students in our country so we want to maintain that advantage so we have our eye on the calendar.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the Ghana Health Service (GHS) is calling on tertiary institutions, to insist on additional measures of monitoring its international students, especially from Ebola hit countries; aside screening that takes place when entering the country.<\/p>\n According to the Director of the Disease Surveillance Unit of the GHS, Dr. Badu Sarkodie, to safe guard the institutions against any outbreak of Ebola they must ensure monitoring for at least 21 days for such students to be sure of their health status.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cScreening at the point of entry is not enough to say that we have adequately evaluated those people and have accessed them to be free from the disease.\u201d<\/p>\n According to him, it is highly possible that some students may be infected by the disease without showing any initial signs and symptoms of infection therefore after screening at the entry points, therefore\u00a0 \u201ceveryday, somebody must watch them to know whether they are having symptoms\u201d for 21 days.<\/p>\n \u201cIf within the period, if any of them develop symptoms, they should be set aside, you will take samples and then you investigate,\u201d he suggested.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n By: Efua Idan Osam\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana
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