The Founder of Afebabalola University has provided guidelines and recommendations that the Federal Government can follow to make it possible for schools to re-open in the next 4 weeks.
He noted that as the situations stand at the moment, only the Almighty God Himself can determine when this whole health issue will come to an end. So the government should not wait until all towns and villages in Nigeria are free from the current health challenge before reopening schools and universities.
He said schools that meet the following conditions below should be allowed to resume academic activities within four weeks:
For Private Schools
- The school must establish that it has residential accommodation for all students including most, if not all the staff.
- Parents shall give written undertakings supported with medical certificates that the student is fit/healthy to resume academic work.
- The institution which must be fenced must have the main gate manned by security men, nurses and other medical personnel.
- There shall be about 3 running water tanks at the gate where students will wash their hands with soap. There shall be portable sanitizers similar to those manufactured by ABUAD with NAFDAC registration number 037328. Each student must be armed with the portable sanitizer.
- He added that there shall be infrared thermometers at the gate where students, staff and anybody coming into the University shall be tested by a nurse or medical personnel.
- The University must have in place the following testing machines; Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR Machine) and Serological Test Machine.
- He stressed that each school must have in place a building specially designed to accommodate any student who is suspected to have any type of infectious diseases ranging from cough, chickenpox, measles, diarrhea etc other than the virus causing the pandemic.
- Each University must have two functional fumigation machines: one for external fumigation and the other for internal fumigation.
- All hostels, classrooms, cafeteria, conference halls, and sports facilities shall be fumigated before resumption.
- The schools, he added, must have testing kits as the students must undergo test fortnightly:
- There must be provision for face masks which shall be used by students and staff in classrooms, conference halls and everywhere on the campus”, the Founder stressed.
- During sessions, visitors shall not be allowed into the institutions, and if allowed, they shall go through the screening at the gates and seated in a special room outside the hostel noting that such visitors shall be very few.
- Aare Babalola further proffered that final year students forced to go home while preparing for their final examination should resume first, take their examination and vacate the university within two to three weeks.
- Thereafter, the next level of students that will resume shall be new students who will undergo the same set of tests like those of final year students.
- The resumption of other levels of students shall be staggered
He added that ensure compliance with these prescriptions, the Ministry of Education in States where the private institution is situated shall, on behalf of the Federal government, visit the private institutions and give a certificate of compliance with the above suggestions before such private institutions can resume academic activities.
For Public Schools
The prescriptions for private universities shall also apply to public universities with some variations.
- For those students who are residents in the public university, the same prescription stated above shall apply.
- For the students who live outside the campus, the parents shall give written undertaking that their children will go to school either in their private cars or buses arranged by parents and/or students.
- Both the buses and the cars which bring students to the institution shall be screened at the gate.
- Public institutions shall provide the same items that private universities are bound to have in place including fencing of the school, provision for main gate, running water tanks, soap, sanitizers, infrared thermometer, testing kits, a building for infectious disease and fumigation machines.
- The resumption of other students shall be staggered.
- To ensure compliance with these prescriptions, the Ministry of Education in the states where the public institution is situated shall on behalf of the Federal Government visit the public institutions and give a certificate of compliance by the public institutions before the public institution can resume academic activities.
What do you think about his guidelines and suggestions?
