COVID-19: Ganduje Reconsiders, Shuns School Closure

COVID-19: Ganduje Reconsiders, Shuns School Closure…

Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje of Kano State has on Friday shunned the idea of closing down schools in the state, as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Ganduje disclosed this in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Abba Anwar, while holding a stakeholder meeting with members of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) with some selected Head Teachers, in the series of Stakeholders Sensitisation Meetings on Second Wave of COVID-19 In Kano, held at Africa House, Government House, Kano, Friday.

The Governor said the closure of schools amidst COVID-19 prevalence, in the second wave phase, would cause another tragedy of taking the society back again, while the devastating virus keeps following students and/or pupils to their homes.

According to the Governor, though there is an urgent need to fight the pandemic using all available measures, he urged everyone to clearly understand the repercussions of certain actions in the process.

“The issue is not that of closing schools. When you close schools, it is another tragedy also. Because if you close schools with the intent that you take students away from COVID-19, the same pandemic is capable of following them into their respective homes. So what are we saying? Ganduje expressed rhetorically.

“The closure of schools would take students and the system of education back again. It is because of this, that we exempted teachers from staying at home. Unlike other civil servants, whom we ordered must not come to work, but stay at home,” he stressed.

He cautioned that COVID-19 protocols must be complied with, “We must comply with all the protocols as provided by our able health workers. This is absolutely necessary.”

Assuring the people of the government’s commitment to the free and compulsory primary and secondary education policy, the Governor encouraged parents to support teachers and the government in making sure that their children always comply with the protocols of COVID-19.