Following the announcement that tertiary institutions in the country will resume activities “soon”, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has said that the early reopening of varsities will lead to a high rate of infections unless proper measures are put in place.
There are fears that once schools resume, the social distancing guideline will be almost impossible to follow because institutions in the country are mostly crowded.
Addressing newsmen, the National Vice President of the union, Emmanuel Osodeke, accused the Federal Government of ensuring that procedures are being put in place at airports across the country because “Their children are going back abroad for studies so the airports should be okay so that they can go back to school.”
Osodeke said, “If government believes that the education sector is critical, they should try and meet those rules. They met them for the airports, you are aware. If you get to an airport before you board a plane, there is a procedure you will pass through because the airport is for the elite.Their children are going back abroad for studies so the airports should be okay so that they can go back to school. Meanwhile, they want these children to go back to schools where there are no health facilities, no good accommodation; lecture theatres are so small for the students and you want them to go and have a high rate of infection.
“We expect the parents, students and our colleagues in the media to put it to the government that they have spent so much money on COVID-19 since it started, why can’t they spend money on the education sector and upgrade the facilities so that the children can go back to school? That is what we should be talking about.
“It is not safe to return to school. The government set the rules for schools on what should happen before schools can reopen. Has the government met the rules? No, they have not. Do we have enough space where the students can keep social distancing? A room that is going to contain two students, we have between 10 and 20 students, will they change that? The lecture theatres too… Do they have improved medical facilities in case of an emergency? These are not there. We expect government to meet those rules before it thinks about reopening.”
At a conference held at the Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State, the zonal Coordinator of the union, Olusiji Sowande, said that public universities have not shown any readiness to reopen, going on to list other factors that make reopening impossible.
Sowande said that public universities had hostel accommodations that were “adequate”, and that there are “no facilities on ground to carry out physical distancing in large and crowded classes” among other factors.
He stated that the reopening of tertiary institutions without the government addressing these impediments for reopening “will be suicidal.”
He said, “The response of the public universities to the call by the National University Commission for their readiness to reopen indicates that public universities are not ready.
“Hostel accommodation is inadequate; there are no facilities on ground to carry out physical distancing in large and crowded classes; water and electricity supplies are not reliable.
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“Reopening tertiary institutions without taking concrete steps to address these issues will be suicidal. While the government made arrangements for special bailout for airline operators and other private entities, no such arrangement was made for public universities.
“Therefore, government should be ready to take responsibility for any possible negative consequences after reopening of universities.
“If government has faithfully implemented the 2012 Needs Assessment report which identified the intensity of the rot in education sector and tertiary education in particular, Nigerian public universities would have been more involved in COVID-19 testing and developing solutions through cutting edge research in well-equipped laboratories.”
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