Lagos Schools Resume After Ebola Scare

Jamiu Yisa

There was a large turn out of pupils and students as both public and private schools in Lagos State, southwest Nigeria, resumed for a new academic session on Wednesday after a forced, prolonged holiday occasioned by the Ebola Virus Disease outbreak.

In some of the schools visited by our correspondent, the students were seen beaming with smiles as life returned to the schools.

The various schools had also prepared to prevent an outbreak of Ebola by procuring thermometers to check the temperature of the students before allowing them into school premises.

All the schools visited prepared extensively for their students’ protection from the virus.

During P.M.NEWS visit to various schools, buckets, hand washing bowls and screening of pupils for high temperature were being carried out in the schools by school principals, teachers and other workers.

While some schools conducted the temperature tests at the gates, others did so at the assembly ground in order to ensure that none of the students was left out.

Parents and guardians that entered the school premises were also tested and asked to wash their hands.

Hand sanitizers were provided and every visitor that walked through the school gates had his or her temperature checked.

All visitors including parents, students and teachers were asked to wash their hands after which sanitizer was applied before any further interaction took place.

At Ojuwoye Primary School, Damigoro Mushin, teachers were seen screening pupils  before allowing them enter their classes.

The Head Teacher of Imaan Marteen private schools, Alimosho, Mrs Adura Olanshile, said they were not taking chances as a doctor was asked to come and educate students and teachers on how to further protect themselves from the disease.

“We love our students and we cannot afford to expose them to Ebola. That is why we are doing everything within our power to see that the virus is adequately checked. Anyone with temperature as high as 37 degrees was asked to go home,” she added.

A health teacher in one of the public schools visited who pleaded anonymity while speaking on parts of their effort to prevent the virus, said, “every person that comes into the school is checked, their temperature is checked, they wash their hands and sanitize them. After that, we call the students to the assembly ground and then address them, informing them of what they are supposed to know.

“We told them to avoid contact with another person who is sweating. In fact, we have told them stop hugging each other for now.

“Today, students that were tested had normal temperature. The government should also supply us with more sanitizers that can last longer so that we can protect the children from the disease,” she said.

In July this year, there was an Ebola outbreak in Nigeria after a Liberian-American, Patrick Sawyer brought the haemorraghic disease into the country.

Doctors and other health workers who had primary contact with Sawyer at First Consultants Hospital, Obalende, Lagos, contracted the deadly disease. Some of them recovered after they were quarantined while others, including Dr. Stella Adadevoh, died.

Another doctor in Port Harcourt, southern Nigeria, also died after contracting the disease before Nigeria successfully contained it in Lagos and Port Harcourt.