Nigeria\u2019s Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu recently threw a spanner in the wheels of those seeking the reopening of schools in the country when he emphatically stated that schools will not re-open. Two weeks ago, the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 had announced that pupils in exit classes of primary and secondary schools could resume to enable them take their exams. Elaborating on this, Minister of State for Education had pointed out that some of the exit exams, including that offered by the West African Examination Council (WAEC) was a cross-border examination and that Nigeria needed to be part of it. Apparently trashing his Minister of State\u2019s position and overruling the PTF, Mr. Adamu announced outrightly in a press briefing that Nigeria would not be taking part in the WAEC conducted examinations owing to COVID-19 concerns. The Minister said that as COVID-19 was seriously ravaging the country, he would not allow pupils to be endangered. According to him, WAEC is a department under his ministry and cannot act without his approval. This is clearly a misstatement and puzzling, coming from a Minister who should know that WAEC is a sub-regional body answerable to the West African countries that set it up and not to the government of Nigeria alone. Amidst the back and forth on the resumption of schools, the Federal Ministry of Education on Monday, July 13 announced guidelines for the reopening of schools. It is unclear if the Minister has read these guidelines issued by his ministry. It is also unclear if the Minister understands that Nigeria is a Federal system and that his ministry has no powers to restrain State governments from deciding on schools in their domain reopening. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The guidelines stipulate that learners should be\nsupported to maintain physical distancing of at least two metres, with other\nrisk mitigation strategies adopted where this cannot be reasonably achieved,\nfor example, among young school children and those with additional needs.\nAlternative learning models such as outdoor learning, staggered attendance,\nalternate attendance, platooning, creative delivery, etc may be adopted to\nachieve physical distancing. Learning facilities are to be disinfected and\nfumigated, with procedures put in place to ensure adequate response if\nstudents, teachers or administrators feel unwell. These facilities are also expected\nto maintain hygiene standards such as handwashing, use of face masks, proper\nfood preparation and proper waste disposal. The guidelines further provide for\nsensitisation and capacity building for all education personnel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to the guidelines, when it is demonstrated\nthat it is safe for teachers and learners to return to school, phased and gradual reopening of schools is\nencouraged to minimise the risk of infections and resurgence of community\ninfections. Federal and State Ministries of Education are expected to decide\nwhen to reopen following due consultations with the PTF, Federal Ministry of\nHealth, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and other relevant\nstakeholders, including private sector education providers. Consultations among\nparents, learners and teachers are equally important to address common concerns.\nAmong other provisions, the guidelines stipulate that a monitoring and\nevaluation framework be established to track and report progress on the\nreopening process and operations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nigeria\u2019s Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu recently threw a spanner in the wheels of those seeking the reopening of schools in the country when he emphatically stated that schools will not re-open. Two weeks ago, the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 had announced that pupils in exit classes of primary and secondary schools could […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1577,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[93,92],"class_list":["post-1573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-as-domestic-flights-commence","tag-confusion-trails-schools-reopening"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1573"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1573\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1584,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1573\/revisions\/1584"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}