A visit to the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ) on Tuesday January 12, 2021shows that there is a little adherence to the covid-19 protocols by some students as management is yet to fully enforce the safety protocols. Veronica buckets which will enable students wash their hands were in short supply, the few available one’s had no water, soup and tissues.
On Tuesday January, 11, 2021, the Republic Press has observed that there was no checking of temperature at the school’s entrance, students and visitors were seen entering while the security looked on without directing anyone to wash hands or use a hand sanitizer before entering the school.
At the school’s cafeteria, most of the students were seen wearing the nose mask on their chin with no physical distancing.
Others were seen in groups under the school’s tent and others walk around, all in groups without the nose mask with few properly having the mask on.
Some of the excited students who obviously were seeing their colleagues after a long time were cheerfully hugging, chatting and shaking hands.
Although some veronica buckets were seen on the corridors of the lecture halls, few had water, soup and tissue.
Almost all the lecture halls including the library had an empty hand sanitizer.
Nii Lante, a level 400 student had this to say “I see majority of students in their mask but some do not have it. When you go to the lecture halls some are in their mask, some are not usually because it is the first week, lectures is not effective so you don’t see lecturers in the lecture halls, but I am sure when they are in, a few class, I heard when the lecturers come to introduce courses, they insist students are in their mask, that is done but I have not seen veronica buckets at vantage points where students can wash their hands.”
Another student, Joshua Agbenu said “generally I think the awareness is on a low. At even at the students level but at the managerial level, just because ordinarily, everyone believes that we have been able to move through some political exercises successfully, we have move through the registration, campaigns and rallies and through the general elections, we hear the same but we do not know of anyone closer who has suffered from that so everything is on the low now, is either people believe the thing exiting now or not even there at all. I think it is the more reason we do not have a very tough safety protocols.”
“I think the school authorities should be blamed and they should be responsible because at the end of the day, long before today, you could not walk through the gate without being checked, you could not walk through without your nose mask covering your nose and mouth, you could not walk through without washing your hands before coming in but from little observation it looks like everything is even normal as before, no temperature check, people walk in without nose mask, people walking in without washing hands and what have you, and so I think if there is anything they have to be blamed because in any place, they should ensure that these protocols are observed.” A student said
“I think we all need to protect ourselves in anyway and ensure that when we are in crowded places we are safe.” Adeline said
The assistant Public Affairs at GIJ, Mr. Daniel Machator, in reaction to our observations said the school is going to employ a two-way teaching and learning mechanism to limit the spread covid-19
“Because of the covid-19, GIJ has introduced a new management learning system which employs online ways of teaching and learning as well as in-person learning for this semester and the rest of the semesters. So that is to ensure that there would not be too many students congregating at one point thereby leading to the spread of covid-19 which we are all trying to prevent. Apart from that, the classes have been divided into groups so we can observe physical distancing and prevent the spread of the disease, also, the government has supported as with enough PPEs. We have nose mask, we are going to be distributing to all students, we have veronica buckets which will be placed at vantage points so that before a student gets to a lecture hall, you are supposed to wash your hands, there are dispensers for hand sanitizers which you have to use before entering the lecture hall and inside the lecture hall, students are to ensure that they are wearing their nose masks.”
Mr. Mechator also added that “in the area of physical distancing, what GIJ has done is that all first year students will be attending school from the Dzorwulu campus, we are looking at over two thousand students so to a very large extent, that is going to reduce congestion on the Ringway campus”
The situation at the Accra Technical University (ATU) is no different as most students were seen sitting in groups chatting and others learning without their mask with few in their nose mask.
Few veronica buckets were spotted at vantage points with the used water filling the bowl beneath the bucket full to the brim.
