Yetunde Daniel
The Trade Union Congress, TUC has called on the Federal Government to ignore the pressure from school owners, who have been trying to prevail on government to shift its position on schools’ resumption date.
TUC appreciated school owners for their efforts in rescuing the decaying education system in a statement jointly signed by Comrades Bobboi Bala Kaigama and Musa Lawal, President and Secretary-General respectively.The body however said that they should also know that it was only those who were alive that could go to school.
Iat would be recalled thatPrimary and Secondary schools’ resumption date was initially extended to October 13, but a new date, September 22, was announced last week by the Minister of Education, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau, after meeting with states’ commissioners for education.
The statement added that, “We cannot agree less with the government and health professionals who have advised that resumption date of schools be extended until further notice, after losing some experienced health workers and other innocent citizens.”
The congress said it acceded that some students in the secondary schools could take care of themselves by washing their hands regularly, “but what about those schools that lack basic amenities, including water and sanitizers? Personal hygiene, a basic antidote to Ebola pandemic, becomes impossible to maintain.
“It is our thinking that you don’t cut off the nose to spite the face. We must not forget that during the long holiday, students travelled far and wide, interacted and had contacts with people -which requires that they should be properly monitored on resumption to avoid unnecessary problems.”
Extending the resumption, the group noted, would afford the proprietors and proprietresses of schools the opportunities to be prepared before the students come in.It stressed that students were most vulnerable, because of their relative ignorance; hence, to avoid further spread, schools should remain shut until further notice.
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