The Ministry of Education and Sports said Wednesday, March 29, the day on which a solar eclipse is expected, is not a public holiday, as the event would last for only three minutes.
Mr Ato Esuman, Chief Director of the Ministry, who spoke in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, urged parents to ensure that their children left the house for school early so that teachers would monitor them.
He said various directives had been sent to all schools to ensure that school children were kept indoors and that only those with the special solar eclipse shades were allowed outside to watch the event.
Mr Esuman stated that Ghana had learnt from past cases in East Africa where there was chaos due to the sudden darkness resulting in various accidents and advised that people who travelled on that day be careful.
On the prices of the special solar eclipse sunshades, he said the Ministry wrote to various corporate entities to either sponsor free distribution or subsidise the cost for school children, but none of them responded positively.
He appealed to parents to consider the social and health implications to be associated with watching the eclipse with the naked eye and provide their kids with the needed protection.