As schools reopen on October 12 across Nigeria, the federal government has asked school owners to put in place necessary preventive measures in their institutions to forestall any outbreak of the coronavirus disease.
The Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, who gave the directive on Friday in Abuja, while lifting the nationwide closure of educational institutions in the country, warned that any school owner who failed to comply with the established safety protocols would have their establishments shut down.
He said, “as we all work out modalities for the opening of learning facilities nationwide, I strongly urge school owners to put in place systems that meet the following: safe distancing procedures, develop and display at schools, simple contexts specific reference protocols on day to day actions to be operated in each school.”
Adamu enumerated other measures to include: “safety and hygiene in all stages and phases of the school reopening process which promote behaviours that reduce spread, such as school commutes (to and from school travelling), safe distancing, frequent hand washing and use of facemasks,” among others.
“Let me warn that any school owner that does not comply with these guidelines and an outbreak occurs in their school due to negligence, risks closure,” the minister cautioned.