By Tanimu Muhammad
The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA ) has disclosed that it will not hesitate to shut down any school within the territory that violates the COVID 19 guidelines recommended for the safety of students who resumed schools two day ago to prepare them for their exit examination.
Chairman of FCTA Ministerial TaskForce on COVID 19 Enforcement, Ikharo Attah Thursday, led a team to inspect some schools within the nation’s capital, explained that the administration cannot afford to expose the students to the danger of contracting the virus, and therefore, will not compromise the guidelines for resumption.
He also said that FCT Minister, Mallam Muhammad Bello has made it clear to heads of schools within the territory, that he is not ready to risk the life of any student or teacher, and therefore will not condone negligence in handling of the situation.
He said that any school, both public and private that fails to adhere strictly to the guidelines would be shut down immediately, while their students will be transferred to other serious schools, while the management of such schools will be sanctioned appropriately.
” Any school that fails to comply, we will do everything within our power to safeguard the students. And such schools will likely be shut down through legal processes and the students will have to go and write exams somewhere else, pending when the school complies with the safety guidelines and those responsible will be brought to book.
” The FCT Minister, Mallam Muhammad Bello has been very clear about it; that he is not going to risk the life of any student or teacher. He said that everyone must come in within the context of safety” , he said.
He noted that most of the public and private schools his team visited to ascertain their level of compliance, had shown about 80 percent readiness in terms of safety of students and teachers in their respective schools, by providing adequate hand washing hand points, sanitizer and decontaminated environment.
According to him, the compliance level at Ragina Pacis and Stella Maris, both private schools, Government Science and Technical College and some of the public schools within the city centre was commendable.
Attah however frowned at the attitude of the Heads of Model Junior Secondary School, located in Asokoro, for their failure to adequately prepare the school environment before the resumption.
While he sternly warned those defaulting to immediately make amends, he further stressed that the inspection will continue at the satellite towns tomorrow, because the administration will not relent in efforts to ensuring that the school environment was safe.
” From our own point it is already encouraging, in the sense that the schools we have been to, both government and private, if we assess them at a point of average, you will score them about 85 percent preparedness. They have complied. You could see hand washing points, hand sanitizer and there was also social distancing in their classrooms.
” In some classes where they used to have about 80 students , have been reduced to 20 and 25 in some cases. In some of the schools, we also saw well equipped healthcare facilities. In some of the schools, we are also not very happy and we have warned very strongly that they should brace up”, he added.