PREPAREDNESS OF SCHOOLS TO RE-OPEN POST COVID-19 INDUCED SCHOOL CLOSURES IN GHANA

Oct 15, 2026

The paper examines how prepared schools in Ghana were to re-open after COVID-19 closures, following an indefinite shutdown aimed at reducing transmission and fatalities. Using a national school-based survey informed by Event Systems and Chaos theories, it evaluates preparedness against reopening schedules and identifies disparities across school sub-levels linked to school location. Recommendations focus on build-back efforts and policy/research support for vulnerable groups during post-emergency recovery in schools.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages21

Reading Time53 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introduction

Research Questions

Strategies for School Re-Opening Post COVID-19 Induced School Closures

Alteration to School Calendars and Attendance

PREPAREDNESS OF SCHOOLS TO RE-OPEN POST COVID-19 INDUCED SCHOOL CLOSURES IN GHANA CLARA ARABA MILLS MIGHT KOJO ABREH AMINA JANGU ALHASSAN GLORIA NYAME ROSEMARY SERWAH BOSU FRANCIS ANSAH WISDOM KWAKU AGBEVANU University of Cape Coast, Ghana ABSTRACT The ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic on society affected several facets including formal education. Significantly, the indefinite closure of schools was introduced to control the spread and related fatality of the pandemic making the decision to reopen schools for all learners in January 2021 after several months of closure a preparedness concern. Using a national school-based survey informed by Event Systems and Chaos theories, the paper explores the preparedness of schools tore-open post-COVID-19 school closure. From the findings, it became evident that schools in Ghana were generally prepared to re-open per schedule. However, there existed unique disparities in some school system sub-levels informed by the location of the school. Consequently, we recommend: (1) the need to take advantage of the confidence the school system had regarding reopening for undertaking build-back efforts in future pandemics, and (2) policy and research response, especially for the vulnerable in resilience building post-emergency recovery in schools. INTRODUCTION The COVID-19 pandemic, which sprung up in late 2019, all but wrecked global human activity as societies restricted human physical contact and mobility in an effort to control the spread of transmission (Dayal & Tiko, 2020; Grants, Achyut, Akello et al, 2023; Rossiter & Abreh, 2020; Spinelli & Pellino, 2020; World Health Organization {WHO} 2020,) The restrictions on physical contact and mobility resulted in the closure of schools to in-person engagements, such that more than 124 countries closed down schools, affecting an estimated 1.25 billion (90.2%) learners informal education across the globe (Dayal & Tiko, 2020; Lomborg, 2020; Ministry of Education {MoE}, 2020; Sheikh, Sheikh, Sheikh, & Dhami, 2020; WHO, 2020) . Long-term closures of schools, however, held dire consequences for the development of children, particularly in exacerbating negative cases around access, equity, and equality in education (Ansah et al., 2023; Im Kampe, Lehfeld, Buda, Buchholz & Haas, 2020; Sheikh et al., 2020,) . Of most interest to stakeholders was the impact of the school closures on learning losses and increasing psycho-social health cases (Abreh, Bosu, Crawfurd, et al., 2021) . Already, only 2% to 4% of infection-to-death ratios had been attributed to school-related COVID-19 reported cases (Lordan, FitzGerald & Grosser, 2020) . This suggested that the continuous closure of schools was no longer tenable relative to the potential losses at hand (Abreh, Agbevanu, Alhassan, et al., 2021; Moro, Sinigaglia, Bert, Savatteri, Gualano, Siliquini, 2020) . Re-opening schools for children in the shortest possible time after restrictions were eased became a compelling option for countries to pursue (American Academy of Pediatrics [AAP], Educational Planning | Fall 2023 9 Vol. 30, No. 4 2020; Schleicher, 2020; Schechter-Perkins, van den Berg & Branch-Elliman, 2020) . The case of adult stakeholders in the school including head teachers, teachers, and non-teaching staff, however, remained a concern considering the high incidence of infections and death in adults (Lordan et al., 2020; Sheikh et al., 2020; Spenelli et al., 2020) . The need to ensure the health and safety readiness of schools to receive both learners and workers became urgent (Abreh, Bosu, Crawfurd, et al., 2021; Schleicher, 2020) . After all, those were the very reasons that caused schools to be closed. Reporting on the models of school reopening, Di Domenico, Pullano, Sabbatini, Boelle and Colizza (2021) provided different strategies countries employed post-COVID-19-induced school closures. Others also examined the prevalent pandemic preventive/control measures in schools (Di

FAQs

What was the purpose of reopening schools in Ghana after COVID-19 closures?

Reopening was pursued to address learning and education impacts after prolonged school closures that had been introduced to control transmission and related fatalities.

How did the study assess school preparedness to re-open?

It used a national school-based survey informed by Event Systems and Chaos theories to examine preparedness relative to reopening schedules.

What did the findings indicate about preparedness in Ghana?

Schools were generally prepared to re-open according to schedule, but disparities existed in some sub-levels influenced by the location of the school.

Oct 15, 2026

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