COVID-19: Guarantee Our Safety Like Your Children Before Asking Us To Resume, Students Tell Nigerian Government

Nigerian students have asked the government to put measures in place to guarantee their safety as the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 mulls the idea of reopening schools as part of the next phase of lifting restrictions put in place to stop the spread of Coronavirus.

The Academic Staff Union of Universities had on Monday warned the Nigerian Government not to reopen tertiary institutions across the country without concrete measures put in place to prevent the spread of Coronavirus.

Students, who will be directly affected by the decision to either reopen schools or keep it shut told SaharaReporters on Tuesday that their major concern was the implenemation of social distancing guidelines considering the already crowded and poor facilities in public schools across the country.

Peace Ifunnaya Godspower, a student of the University of Nigeria Nsukka, Enugu State, expressed concern over her colleague, who has a respiratory condition that predisposes her to complications if she contracts COVID-19 in school.

She said, “Their children are already leaving for schools abroad because its September.

“I have a course mate who has asthma and she is worried that if they say we should resume and she contracts COVID-19 by mistake, it may result to something else and you cannot tell her to stay at home while the rest of us resume.

“In fact, since this whole thing started, her parents have not allowed her to go out because they are scared something bad might happen to her.

“I have no problem with resuming as long as the government can guarantee our safety like their children.”

Mahmood Abdullahi Loke, Senate President of the students union at the Federal University of Technology, Minna, Niger State, said the government cannot afford to continue keeping schools shut because of the long term impact on development.

He, however, expressed concern on overcrowding especially among 100 level students.

He said, “In the case of schools reopening, we will only be bias if we ask the Federal Government not to reopen schools.

“A lot of things are going on. Markets are open already, that is enough to justify the opening of schools. The infection rate of COVID-19 has reduced drastically if you check the chart these days.

“Many schools are already putting measures in place for school reopening, it will be biased to say schools should not reopen. National development has been halted because students are at home.”

Soneye Abdul-Azeez, Student Union President at Tai Solarin University of Education, Ogun State, called on all students bodies president’s to insist with ASUU that the Nigerian Government put tangible measures in place to protect students.

He said, “Students are ready to resume but any failure to resume will be on the part of the government, the weakness of the government.

“As ASUU had rightly said, the government cannot just order resumption without making provision for resumption and I think that should be the position of students union leaders. We are ready to resume but there should be a mimimum standard that will guarantee the safety of both students and workers when they resume to campus.”

Abdul-Azeez also lamented the absence of e-learning facilities on government-funded campuses, which had created a gap in education between students in public and private universities in the country.

He said, “For some of us (students union leaders), we see that this COVID-19 had really revealed the irresponsibility of government that is long overdue to be tackled.

“The same people who are owners of private institutions are people who control the government, so it is nothing new.

“At least we have had the experience of ASUU strike that was over six.months and private universities were going on with their activities, so it is almost nothing new, the only difference is that this one is not caused by an industrial action but by a pandemic.

“If our public institutions had been provided with e-learning facilities, we would have benefited like our counterparts in private universities.”

Education

PUBLIC HEALTH

News

AddThis

Original Author

SaharaReporters, New York

Disable advertisements

from 24HRSNEWS
via 24HRSNEWS

from EDUPEDIA247https://ift.tt/3gNteh6
via EDUPEDIA

Nigerian Academy Of Science Inducts First Female President

The Nigerian Academy of Science has inducted a professor of Parasitology/Epidemiology, Ekanem Ikpi Braide, as its 19th President on Thursday. In a statement issued by Oladoyin Odubanjo, the Executive Secretary of the Academy, Braide is the Academy’s first female President in 44 years of existence. It read, “Braide was a member of the national committee that achieved the laudable feat of guinea worm eradication in Nigeria. “She has a rich professional experience as a researcher and an administrator. In July 2010, Professor Braide was honoured by the President of Nigeria with the award of Officer of the Order of the Federal Republic (OFR) for her contribution to disease control in Nigeria. “She was nominated by the Honourable Minister of Health to serve in the Ministerial Expert Advisory Committee on COVID-19 Health Sector Response (MEACoC-HSR). “Professor Braide served as Vice-Chancellor, Cross River University of Technology (CRUTECH) Calabar, Nigeria (2004 to 2009) and as P...

NLNG Signs Letter Of Intent On Delayed Gas Expansion Project

The Nigerian Natural Liquefied Gas LTD has signed a letter of intent for the engineering, procurement and construction of its long held up Train Seven project. In a statement released by the company on Wednesday, it said that the $10bn project will be executed by a consortium of Italian firm Saipem, Japan’s Chiyoda and South Korea’s Daewoo. The statement reads, “The project will form part of the investment of over $10bn including the upstream scope of the LNG value chain, thereby boosting the much needed Foreign Direct Investment profile of Nigeria.” Managing Director of NLNG, Tony Atta, said in 2018 that the Final Investment Decision would be made in the fourth quarter of that year. This did not however, materialize. According to the release, the project will have a four to five-year execution time after the signing of the FID. The project is expected to add an extra 8 million tons per annum of gas to the 22 mtpa currently exported by the company. Oil News AddThis :...

Former Maritime Agency Boss, Buba Galadima, Accuses AMCON Of Witch-hunt After Property Takeover

A former Director-General of the Nigeria Maritime Agency, Buba Galadima, has accused the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria of witch-hunt after the agency took possession of his business and assets on Tuesday in Abuja. Galadima, an ardent critic of President Muhammadu Buhari, claimed that he did not borrow money or have unpaid debt with Unity Bank, which lodged a complaint against him and occasioned AMCON’s move on Tuesday. The properties taken over include House No. 15, Addis Ababa Crescent, Wuse Zone 4, Federal Capital Territory, Abuja and House No. 4, Bangui Street, Wuse 2, also in Abuja. Reacting to the situation, Galadima said, “This is an attempt to disgrace and break me down. This is injustice and an attempt to humiliate me. "But I am unbreakable and they can never silence me. They sacked me and over 50 people that sleep in the apartment. "We don’t know where to go. We will remain on the streets. We will remain on the streets until God provi...

EDUPEDIA247

Search This Blog