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The Federal Government has given school owners specific guidelines to meet for the safe reopening of schools. According to the government, an official date for safe reopening of schools will be announced once these guidelines are in place. Schools are expected to meet the guidelines by July 29th, 2020.
This information was contained in a statement by the Minister of State for Education, Emeka Nwajiuba.
Nwajiuba said the Federal Ministry of Education (FMoE), having consulted widely, has in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Health, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), the Education in Emergencies Working Group, developed and circulated guidelines for the reopening of schools.
The minister said school owners are expected to prepare and comply with the guidelines. He stated that once school owners are able to meet the guidelines, consultations with relevant stakeholders will be held to review the situation and decide on a specific date for reopening or otherwise.
The minister said the ministry has consulted with Commissioners of Education in the 36 states, the Association of Private School Owners of Nigeria,(APSON), National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools,(NAPPS), Provosts of Colleges of Education, Rectors of Polytechnics, Vice-Chancellors of Universities, some State Governors and development partners since Tuesday last week.
Concerning WAEC, the minister said the ministry met with WAEC on Monday and both parties have agreed to further consult with four other countries to pick September 5th as the new examination date.
Federal Government Girls’ College
P. M. B. 1137
Calabar,
Cross River State.
13th July, 2020.
The Honourable Minister,
Federal Ministry of Education,
Abuja,
Nigeria.
Dear Sir,
APPEAL FOR REOPENING OF SCHOOLS IN OUR COUNTRY
I am writing formally to appeal to you to use your good office to reopen all schools which you ordered to be closed down due to the wake of the drastic Corona Virus Disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
It is very unfortunate that the pandemic has been noxious in all parts of the world which has caused a lot of excruciating things to people.
Students are just seated at home idle, the online classes organised for students to take part in is not functioning as supposed to, in many parts of our country. Most parents do not have the funds to buy data or even buy phones for their children in order for them to also participate in the online class, some people do not have television sets in their homes, even those who have, power is not supplied often to make use of the television and take part in the class.
Most people actually learn differently from the way others learn. To be honest, most people learn little or most times nothing from online lectures, this is because the teachers will not take great time to explain what they are teaching the students, and the students also do not have the opportunity to ask the teachers questions, literally because they just watch them and that is all.
The final year students in secondary schools and even in universities can not go to school to write their examination and this is a dire case because it will cause students to spend more months or even more years than required in school, which is not supposed to be so.
By now, students are meant to be graduating from school, and anticipating to enter the university, mean while, they are busy pondering over when schools will be reopened in order for them to sit for their examinations. This is extremely heart breaking.
It is over three months now since schools have been under lock and key. The traumatic experience students are facing of staying idle at home while their colleagues in other schools in other countries of the world are in school is grievous. Parents of most children are hiring tutors to tutor their children but the issue is, learning in school is extremely different from learning at home.
Those parents who can not afford to hire tutors to tutor their children due to lack of funds or some other circumstances, the children end up sitting at home all day doing nothing, some just watch television from morning till night, while others go out on a daily basis just for fun and end up achieving nothing at all, and their parents or guardians do not watch them closely or at least help them study, probably because they are busy with work, business or one thing or the other.
Additionally, we all know that the State and Federal Governments are trying their best to sweep out this disease from our country by doing some certain things like locking down of public places in order for one not to contact the disease, but they should at least reopen schools and make sure preventive measures are taken so that one would not contact the disease, by ensuring that in all schools, every student and staff must have an alcohol based hand sanitizer where ever he or she is, also ensure that drums of water are kept in front of all classrooms with a liquid soap so that students can wash their hands regularly. Social distancing must also be observed in the school, both within the staff and students.
With these measures put in place, those who have examinations to write, can actually write examination rather than sitting at home idle and keep wasting time.
I would be grateful if you favourably consider my plea for the reopening of all schools in our country.
Yours faithfully,
Duke, Duchess Basy.
08037238443.
Thanks a lot for adding your voice Madam Duke. I really appreciate.
The government is always there to monitor and if need be again they can do the needful. But the truth is that the whole world must face the fact that we must learn to live with the pandemic.
This is 100% true……thanks.