We’re not yet convinced about school reopening

The Federal Government says it has not come to a point where it is convinced that schools should be re-opened for academic exercise after their closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Minister of State for Education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, said this in Abuja on Thursday at a meeting of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 with the Northern Traditional Leaders Committee on National Primary Health.

The meeting was presided over by the Minister of Information and Culture on behalf of the Chairman of PTF and Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha.

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The meeting was to seek the support of the traditional rulers towards preventing community spread of COVID-19.

Responding to a question from Sultan of Sokoto, Sa’ad Abubakar, on school reopening, Nwajiuba said the federal government is still evaluating the situation.

“At the moment, we have not come to the point where we can say we’re convinced that schools can manage themselves and reopen comfortably.

“Our teams have gone out and we’ll use the whole of this week and next week to do a proper evaluation.

“We’re going round to see the level of compliance, but most importantly we’re waiting to get an update on all the facilities in every part of Nigeria. So, it is a work in progress,” he said.

The minister said the government strongly believed in the opinions of experts that 15 per cent of transmission of the pandemic was from school environment and that was why they proposed remodelling of classes.

“We believe the experts that the school system is a suspect place for transmission and that is why we are working with them, particularly on guidelines.

“We are suggesting that classes be remodelled if there are no enough classrooms for social distancing,

“We can do tier system, some can come in the morning, may be the junior classes and the senior classes can come in the afternoon. (NAN)

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