We Will Issue Guidelines For Schools Reopening Soon – FG

The Federal Government has announced that it will soon issue guidelines for the reopening of schools across the federation.
Boss Mustapha, Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, disclosed this at the daily press briefing of the task force in Abuja on Wednesday.
All primary, secondary and tertiary educational institutions were forced to close down due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Mustapha, who doubles as Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), said state and local governments, proprietors and all other stakeholders must begin to take steps to facilitate an early and safe reopening of schools.
He said: “Today, 27th May, 2020 is also Children’s Day worldwide and this brings to mind the need to build a legacy that would guarantee a safe and secured future for our children. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the nation was faced with the challenge of out of school children. This has now been compounded by the compelling need for closure of schools as part of the measures to limit the spread of the virus,
“​The PTF has been deliberating on this situation and wish to inform Nigerians that the Federal Ministry of Education will roll out measures to be put in place for safe re-opening of our schools. The Hon. Minister of Education (State) will be elaborating on the subject, this afternoon. He will also clarify the purported announcement of the resumption date which went viral last week.”
Also speaking, Emeka Nwajiuba, Minister of State for Education, stated that the government is contemplating having only morning and afternoon classes for students across all primary, secondary and tertiary educational institutions in the country.
He also debunked reports that emanated on social media last week that schools will reopen on 8 June.
He, however, insisted that the Federal Government will not rush to reopen schools until it is certified that students can safely return to the classrooms.
He also stated that private schools must adhere to all the protocols to be established by the Federal Government.
Nwajiuba said: “Until we are sure these children can go to school, return safely and not bring up with them COVID-19 and infect people who are more susceptible than they are, then we are running a huge risk and God forbid, in our hurry, something happens to our children, I am not sure how anybody will be able to retrieve what has been lost.
“We are going to publish a specification on what we expect COVID-19 or post-COVID-19 reopening to look like. We are not talking about coping with COVID-19 but in spite of COVID-19, we expect that we will adapt.
“For a country that has over 115,000 primary schools, you will understand that 35,000 of these who are private must agree to set up the same standard in other to allow children to go in.
“We may have classes in the morning and classes in the afternoon so that we will have the whole of the infrastructure divided provided they can serve us. I am not sure we will have classes at night. But we can do with morning and afternoon for now.”