The Lagos State government has threatened to come hard on any school caught holding physical lessons with students in defiance to the nationwide closure of schools occasioned by coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in the country.
Recall that the federal and state governments have both closed down all public and private schools at all levels nationwide since March and asked students to stay at home as a way of curbing the spread of COVID-19 which has led to the death of many people globally and ruined the economy.
The Director-General, Office of Education Quality Assurance, Lagos Ministry of Education, Mrs Abiola Seriki-Ayeni, gave the warning, asking owners of private primary and secondary schools in the state who are indulging in such practice under whatever guise to desist as it totally contradicts the government’s directive.
She explained that holding physical lessons at this time when cases of infected persons and deaths continue to rise in the country is the same as exposing pupils and students and even the teachers to the disease.
“That is why any school caught flouting this directive of government will be heavily sanctioned,” she emphasised.
While Mrs Seriki-Ayeni, in a statement by the head of public affairs unit of her office, Mr Emmanuel Olaniran, declared that the monitoring team from her office would be all out across the state to see the level of compliance and take action against any school found to contravene the order, she said it was strange that some schools are designing a way of beating government as regards the order without minding the unsafe implications of such on their students.
She advised school owners involved in the practice to stop forcing students/pupils to school because of the attendant great risks involved, saying the government would certainly make schools resumption a public knowledge when it is safe to do so.
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