that there are plans to soon reopen schools nationwide, however, it
won’t happen in two weeks as being speculated in some quarters.
Nwajiuba, made the clarification on Thursday during the daily
briefing of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, following rumours
making the round the Federal Government would reopen schools in the next
two weeks.
Nwajiuba said there is no exact date yet for schools to resume,
adding that schools will be reopened after they are ”resourced
properly”.
“We all are seriously interested in reopening and I believe we will
reopen soon. But I can’t confirm what your children said that we will
reopen in two weeks. The issue around reopening has nothing to do with
the availability of the schools or not. It has to do with national
governance. The idea of shutting down the schools has nothing to do with
the schools per se.You heard the chairman of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19,
the SGF, keep saying it is a national response. It is a single national
response and everything we do flows from that.When they determine, I’m sure you have seen all the experts here,
that there is the measure of safety to which we can expose our children,
we will gladly do that. We are watching and we are working with all
bodies within and outside the country.The five countries of West African Examination Council (WAEC) are
meeting and I just came out of a meeting with African Union (AU)
Ministers of Education, everybody is concerned as you are. We hope to
reopen very soon. This morning, I met with the Ministry of Science and
Technology. We are looking at putting a system in place that can
disinfect every child as he goes into a school and disinfect him as he
goes out.If we resource our schools properly we can begin to reopen. But we
must be able to ensure that the children go in safe and come out safe
and not become a conduit for further infection in society.” he said
