As Schools Resume 22 Sept.

Now that the Nigerian Government has announced a definite date for schools to resume in the country, it is very important for school owners, in the case of private schools, and the government, which owns the public schools, to ensure strict adherence to issues of hygiene and cleanliness in all schools across the nation. This, in our view, would help in curtailing any possible spread of the Ebola Virus which delayed the resumption of schools in the first place.

However, we find it difficult to understand why the government and private school owners are in a hurry to reopen schools while the disease is still being contained in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, after it was successfully contained in Lagos.  Since isolated cases are still being reported in parts of the country and the fact that over 400 Ebola contacts are still being monitored in Port Harcourt, it would have been better to defer the resumption of schools to safeguard the pupils, students and their teachers.

Ebola was imported into Nigeria by Patrick Sawyer, a Liberian-American diplomat on 20 July. Since then, Nigeria has been doing everything possible to curtail its spread and stop more deaths resulting from the disease.

One of such steps was the earlier deferment of students’ resumption to 13 October, which the country’s Minister of Education, Ibrahim Shekarau, had argued would give the government ample time to battle the deadly virus, which has no known cure or vaccine yet.

Days ago, however, the Federal Government again announced a review of the date. Pupils and students of the various schools in the country are now to resume on 22 September. According to Shekarau, the new resumption date affects all private and public schools including Federal Government colleges. He announced further that measures were being put in place to curb the spread of the disease and this include urging the Ministry of Education in the 36 states to appoint desk officers on Ebola.

Aside this, Shekarau called for the training of at least two staff of every school, public or private, by health experts on how to handle any suspected case.

Barring any further postponement of the resumption date, we urge schools to commence immediate sensitisation of their teachers and non-teaching staff on not just the preventive measures alone, but how best to monitor the activities and health of the children in their various classes.

The teachers must also devote a time each day to remind their students about the preventive measures against the Ebola Virus. The students and pupils should know that simple hygienic practices like frequent washing of the hands, not touching a sick person and avoiding skin-to-skin contact with people as much as possible, are key in the fight against the Ebola Virus Disease. Schools must now provide water and soap for students to wash their hands when they need to do so.  It won’t be out of place to devote a time to hand washing during school hours.