The federal government’s directive on schools reopening have got state Ministries of Education across the country, working round the clock to ensure appropriate measures to prevent the spread of the dreaded COVID-19 are in place.
Barely one week ago, exit classes of schools were directed to resume on August 4, to allow students prepare for the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for the next two weeks.
Since then, authorities of the Delta State Basic and Secondary Education commenced works to accommodate thousands of students who will sit for the Certificate Examinations come August 17.
According to the Commissioner for Basic and Secondary Education, Mr. Patrick Ukah, 5,697 private and public school teachers across the state have been trained on carrying out the COVID-19 protocols in their schools.
He disclosed that the ministry is working with its Health and Environment counterparts to ensure safety of students and teachers with regards to COVID-19 guidelines, when classes resume on Tuesday.
Among measures being put in place are fumigation of schools, repairs of doors and broken ceilings, provision of sickbay in the case of incident, as well as toll free lines to response centers across the 25 LGAs.’
Ukah said: “we are prepared. We have cleared the schools. The Ministry of Environment is going round fumigating the schools and we hope that Sunday latest, they will be done.
“Our Department Planing Research and Statistics people are going round and currently deployed to all the LGAs just to do minor works in case there are doors that are broken and ceilings falling off in the classes to be used for the SSS 3 classes, they will fix them.
“We have done simulation and we are using the number of classes according to the number of students that are going to write the exams. We have done it such that only 20 people will be in a class.
“In every school, we have a sickbay. If there is no sickbay, we prepare a class for that school which the Ministry of Health can use in case there is an incident.
“We are going to give thermometers, we are going to give some sanitizers. But we are providing water for those who do not have water through storage tanks. And we will have the bucket taps in most of the schools. We are sending 10 each and we are making facemasks for all the students and teachers.
“We are going to give hand towels that can be used to disinfect their tables everyday. We are sending 30 to every school, so that they can use the soap and water to clean their desks and chairs before sitting on a daily basis.”