Zoomlion Ghana Limited has lauded heads of basic schools in the Northern Region for their level of cooperation in the execution of ongoing disinfection of their schools against the novel coronavirus.
General Manager for Zoomlion in the Northern Region, Peter Dawuni, made the commendation while addressing journalists during the disinfection of Gurugu R/C School in Tamale in the Northern Region on Tuesday.
“I am happy with how the schools’ authorities were cooperating with us on the whole disinfection exercise in the Northern Region,” he said.
About 5,000 basic schools in the Northern Region are being disinfected in the Region ahead of the resumption of academic exercise by final year students who are preparing to for their Basic Education Certificate Examination.
The exercise, which started last week, formed part of the President’s directives for all basic schools in the country to be disinfected against the coronavirus disease (Covid-19).
It is to ensure those basic schools’ facilities and open spaces are safe from the coronavirus.
The exercise is expected to be completed by Thursday, June 25.
“…and though this disinfectant is potent in the fight against viruses and bacteria, disinfection must be continuous and not a one-off activity,” Mr Dawuni said.
He said the only challenge they have encountered is the distance to some of the schools.
“In some cases, we have had to use canoes to cross rivers to places in the Northern Region to disinfect schools. And there have also been instances where we have been compelled to park our cars to use motorbikes,” he indicated.
The disinfection team first went to Gurugu Riyadh Suadiheen M/A Primary in the Sanarigu Municipal in Tamale.
Headmaster of the school, Salifu Kofi, said he was highly impressed with the disinfection exercise.
“We believe disinfecting our schools will to a large extent, protect our environs from the Covid-19 disease,” he averred.
However, he said one area of concern was how they would enforce the social distancing protocol. That, he intimated, would be difficult to implement due to the lack of adequate chairs and tables in the school.
He, therefore, used the chance to appeal to the government to support them with personal protective equipment (PPE). He said although his pupils were few, there was a challenge on how parents would join forces with the teaching staff members to educate the children on the government’s directives.
The next place disinfected was a cluster of schools in Gurugu. These included St. Joan of Arc JHS, Gurugu R/C among others.
For his part, Headmaster of Gurugu R/C, Francis Faaseg, praised Zoomlion for the exercise.
He, however, charged the company to continue to support government to fight the pandemic.
According to him, they were yet to receive the Covid-19 preventive items including nose masks, liquid soaps, Veronica buckets and alcohol-based hand sanitisers.
On ensuring that the final-year pupils practice social distancing, Mr Fasseg disclosed that the school would not have any problem, adding that the JHS 3 pupils were 99 and that there were enough classrooms to accommodate them.
However, he used the opportunity to make a passionate appeal to non-governmental organisations (NGOs), corporate bodies and individuals to support the school with chairs.
By 3news.com|Ghana