The Federal Government says schools cannot resume now as it is not yet safe to do so. The Minister of State for Education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, stated this in Abuja during the briefing of the PTF. He described reports that schools will resume on June 21 as not true.
He added that the Ministry is trying to avoid the mistake of moving students in and out of school and the Ministry would not like to lead Nigerians into danger by being in a hurry to resume academic activities.
The Minister however added that it will only be right for schools to resume when the interstate movement restriction has been lifted. He said until that is done, it will not be right for schools to resume because that will mean that teachers and students will not move freely to their schools.
Also responding to this, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and PTF Chairman, Boss Mustapha, said schools will not resume in a hurry in order to avoid severe consequences that happened to other countries. He mentioned the cases of South Korea and Isreal where schools had to be shit again due to spike in cases.
Students Taking WAEC NECO and NABTEB Exams To Resume First
The minister disclosed that he had a meeting on Monday with representatives of the West African Examination Council (WAEC), National Examination Council (NECO), and National Business and Technical Examination Board (NABTEB) to brainstorm on how to conduct their pending examinations.
He said the plan is to actually bring candidates taking the 2020 WAEC, NECO and NABTEB exams to resume first but that can equally be possible after the interstate travel ban has been lifted because there is no way schools can resume if teachers can’t come.
He said that the Ministry is also trying to figure out how to bring the timetable for the WAEC, NECO, and NABTECB exams closer as it will take about 6 weeks to conclude each of the exams. He added that conducting the exam on Saturdays and Sundays is equally being considered
He added that the government was also planning when to conduct the National Common Entrance Examination to get those in primary schools to move into secondary schools.
