FG Considers Options For School Resumption

Minister of State for Education, Emeka Nwajiuba, said during the COVID-19 Presidential Task Force briefing on Wednesday that the federal government was considering two classes in the morning and afternoon as an option in helping to contain the spread of COVID-19 in the secondary schools.

Dr. Jane Bevan, UNICEF Nigeria Chief of WASH, says that one-third of children do not have access to at least basic water at home, and two-thirds do not have basic sanitation services. / Photo credit: currentschoolnews.com
The report noted that a Roadmap for Digital Universal Birth Registration has been created through the partnership, in Nigeria / Photo credit: currentschoolnews.com

The federal government has denied reports that schools will reopen on June 8, 2020 saying it plans to rely on advice from health experts and guidelines from the World Health Organisation (WHO) before schools can reopen.

Minister of State for Education, Emeka Nwajiuba, said during the COVID-19 Presidential Task Force briefing on Wednesday that the federal government was considering two classes in the morning and afternoon as an option in helping to contain the spread of COVID-19 in the secondary schools.

He said this would help in ensuring schools would not be crowded so that some level of social distancing can be maintained and students will all not be attending classes at the same time.

“Until we are sure that our children can go to school and return safely without taking COVID-19 home, we are not ready to take the risk of opening schools,” he said

The minister said, “We are going to publish a specification on what we expect COVID-19 or post-COVID-19 reopening to look like. We are not talking about coping with COVID-19 but in spite of COVID-19, we expect that we will adapt.

“For a country that has over 115,000 primary schools, you will understand that 35,000 of these who are private must agree to set up the same standard in other to allow children to go in.”

He said, “We may have classes in the morning and classes in the afternoon so that we will have the whole of the infrastructure divided, provided they can serve us. I am not sure we will have classes at night.”

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