Public and private schools in Lagos, Osun, Ogun and Abuja resumed academic activities on Monday for the second term of the 2020/21 academic year amid the second wave of COVID-19.
Our correspondents, who went round some of the schools in the these states and the Federal Capital Territory, however, observed partial compliance in the schools with COVID-19 protocols released by the Federal Government.
In Lagos, the state Commissioner for Education, Mrs Folasade Adefisayo, visited some schools to monitor their compliance with COVID-19 protocols.
The commissioner went round schools in the Agege area, including Diary Farm Senior Secondary School, District Junior College, Sango Junior Secondary School, Agege, and Sango Senior Secondary School.
Wash hand basins and infrared thermometers were provided in all the schools visited by the commissioner while students wore their face masks.
Our correspondent who monitored schools’ resumption in Osun visited Salvation Army Grammar School and Osogbo Grammar School, where some students were barred from entering the schools’ premises for not wearing nose masks.
Many of the affected students, however, claimed they could not afford to buy face masks as their parents only gave them money for their lunch in school.
Our correspondent also reported that none of the two schools had thermometers for checking the students’ and staff temperature.
Schools also resumed in Ogun in compliance with the directive by the state Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Prof. Abayomi Arigbabu.
Arigbabu had on Friday directed all primary, secondary as well as government science and technical colleges to resume academic activities on Monday while appealing to parents, guardians, teachers, school administrators, and other stakeholders to ensure full compliance with all coronavirus protocols.
In FCT, Abuja, academic activities also resumed as some schools in Karu, Abuja Municipal Area Council, threw open their gates to students in line with the COVID-19 protocols of the Federal Government. Many of the schools, however, only partially complied with the COVID-19 protocols.
Schools visited included Government Secondary School, Karu; Hayatu Islam International Academy, Karu; Shalom Children Academy; Prime Scholars’ School and Total Academy, among others.
At the GSS, Karu, two spots for washing of hands were provided at the school gate.
For the about 15 minutes that our correspondent monitored events from the gate, however, only one female member of staff was seen washing her hands before entering the premises.
Other members of staff and students did not do so.
There was also no temperature check for those entering the premises.
A male member of staff, who arrived at about 7.30am was seen shaking hands with all his colleagues who were at the gate to stop latecomers.
Students and members of staff were, however, seen wearing their face masks before entering.
Many of the students were seen bringing the masks out from either their pockets or school bags.
More compliance was, however, noticed among private schools
Meanwhile, Ebonyi State Government said it will deploy two nurses in each public school ahead of today’s resumption to stem the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic.
Chairman of the state chapter of the Nigeria Union of Teachers, Mr Francis Elechi, who disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria, explained that the nurses would assist the teachers, who had been trained on the preventive measures against the second wave of COVID-19.