School reopening: ‘Adoption of FG’s school readiness template necessary’

Efforts of the Federal Government to curb the further spread of  Coronavirus among the citizenry has been intensified with the development of  Safe School Re-opening Readiness Template for safe school re-opening in the country. 

Recently, the Federal Government mandated the Federal Ministry of Education (FME), Federal Ministry of Health in conjunction with the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) and other allied bodies to develop an effective template as a guideline to arrest the spread of COVID -19 in Nigerian schools. 

The vulnerability of students and pupils in basic and post-basic education to the virus warranted the Federal Government to encourage states to adopt a tested template in every school in the states. 

For clarification and the need to intimate the state governments with the relevance of the developed template,  a  2-day  dialogue meeting was held with the states’ education policymakers and other education stakeholders in the states, which ran simultaneously in each of the six geo-political zones in Nigeria on Monday, was concluded yesterday.   Oyo State Commissioner for Science and Technology, Olasunkanmi  Olaleye,(a Barrister in law) played host to his counterparts drawn from the other five states in the south-west.

At the opening ceremony, the commissioner, in his welcome address, reiterated the commitment of the Oyo State Government to deploy all the necessary resources to end the transmission of coronavirus pandemic,  in the school system and everywhere in the state.

 While he commended the federal government, the UNICEF and NCDC for their commitments towards saving Nigerians from  COVID- 19 epidemic  Olaleye declared that it is high time   Nigeria made its school system technological driven, stressing that E-learning procedure has become paramount in the education reform process. 

Speaking in the same vein, The honourable Minister of State for Education, Chukuemeka, Nwajiuba, represented by  Sunday   Ogunkunle, a director in the ministry, stated that the zonal stakeholders’ dialogue on school reopening readiness for school resumption became inevitable for every education policymakers, at the state and local government levels, private school owners inclusive,  to deliberate on the Safe School  Readiness  Template being developed by the Federal Ministry of Education,  designed to be used as a guideline by every school in the country to safeguard the spread of the virus in our school system. 

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Abiodun  Ogunniyi, who represented the  National Centre for Disease Control, Abuja at zonal education stakeholders held in  Oyo State,  noted that compliance of every school in the country to COVID-19 control measures approved by NCDC is a fundamental key to control the spread of the virus, especially among the students in the country.

According to him, some guidelines on safe school re-opening strategies developed by the Federal  Ministries of Education, Health, NCDC, UNICEF and  Education in   Emergencies  Working Group Nigeria(EIEWGN)  was brought to the meeting for a review at the state level to agree on the expected roles and responsibility at all levels of education from the document for its adoption by the state governments in their various schools.

He added that Child Assent form for  COVID -19 Testing for students is unavoidable. 

Also speaking in the same vein, Chairperson, Safe Schools  Declaration Sub -Committee, Education   In Emergencies Working Group Nigeria,(EIEWGN), Abiola  Sanusi asserted that the dialogue was held to ensure that all the states in the federation are in the same page as regard school reopening readiness for the resumption of schools in Nigeria. 

According to her, the success story of COVID -19 spread control in  Nigerian schools would need the collaboration of parents, community leaders and all the allied stakeholders to arrest the situation. 

The UNICEF representative at the meeting, Dr Murtala Muhammed   declared that for the success of this school reopening readiness for the resumption and for smooth academic programme henceforth,   school monitoring is essential to know what is happening at the school level and that  government should reinvest into the education to meet the increasing  financial needs  of  the schools

 He also urged the government to develop a robust communication strategy to carry everybody in the system along.”E-learning is very relevance and inevitable because of the situation.  There is need for government to involve the private sector, corporate bodies in the state to give their financial support towards the COVID-19 spread control in our school system. Also, the government should see to the teachers’ and students’ health welfare,” he said. 

NIGERIAN TRIBUNE