Suspend schools reopening for now-ASUU President Tells Govt
The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has advised the Federal Government against the planned reopening of schools in Nigeria due to the increasing rate of the COVID-19 pandemic.
ASUU National President, Professor Biodun Ogunyemi, said this in Ota, Ogun State, on Monday while addressing newsmen.
According to him, the federal government needs to address the challenges of education sector before it can consider the reopening of schools.
Professor Ogunyemi enjoined the government to provide ideal environment and meet the conditions enumerated by the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, before reopening schools.
“The federal government must lead and show the ways by meeting the conditions for reopening of schools before any school can be allowed to open, because COVID-19 pandemic is a health challenge.
“When it comes to public health, it is something that should not be left in the hands of individuals, but the federal government must take the lead,’’ he said.
The ASUU president listed the conditions spelt out by the NCDC to include: provision of materials for regular washing of hands, face mask, isolation centres, space for social distancing and hand sanitizers.
He added that many of the schools do not have financial capacities to meet those conditions and requirements for reopening of schools.
“It is suicidal to reopen schools now if the federal government itself could not meet the conditions spelt out by NCDC and World Health Organisation (WHO).
“The nation will expose the innocent children to risks which is avoidable,” he said.
Professor Ogunyemi noted that many of the schools could not afford to provide hand sanitizers, saying that many of them do not even have running water, not to talk of having facility for washing hands insisting that many schools do not have enough spaces to promote physical distancing.
The ASUU president said that putting all these requirements needed together to reopen schools in the country would run to millions of Naira, which most schools may not be able to afford.
He appealed to the federal government to provide the running funds for the principals and head teachers so that they could provide some of these facilities in their schools, adding that inadequate funds by many parents would hinder them from providing some of these amenities needed for reopening of schools.
Professor Biodun Ogunyemi, therefore, said that the federal government needed to tell Nigerians the steps they intended to take in reopening schools before the schools are eventually opened .
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