Proprietors To Kwara Govt: Reopen Schools September 21

By Steve Oni, Ilorin

Proprietors of Model Islamic schools in Kwara state have expressed their readiness to reopen their schools, saying schools in the state are now safe to reopen.

According to them, the partial reopening of schools for the secondary schools’ certificate examinations has shown that the phobias about school reopening in the country were exaggerated.

Addressing journalists in Ilorin, the Kwara state capital, the Spokesman for the Association of Model Islamic Schools (AMIS) in the state, Prof. Abdulrazaq Oniye, said: “it will be catastrophic for the state if schools do not reopen as soon as possible.”

Oniye, who expressed the readiness of the Proprietors of Islamic Model Schools to observe COVID-19 safety protocols in their schools, urged the state government to reopen schools in the state by September 21, 2020.

He said: “This is necessary so that the third term of the 2019/2020 academic session will not be skipped.

“Experts have told us that we should prepare to live with COVID-19 for at least two years. It’s unthinkable that schools in Kwara state will remain shut for that long. So, the smart option is to think of how schools will operate in the state despite COVID-19.

“It does not appear that government is thinking of reopening schools for now and for the foreseeable future. AMIS has not been consulted as a stakeholder in education on the reopening of schools and we ought to.

“We are strongly of the opinion that school curriculum should not be abridged when reopening them. Such curriculum abridgement happened in the past with disastrous consequences. This is partly responsible for the perceived decline in education standard. When curriculum is abridged, some foundation topics are not taught in each subject and the topics based on them are not understood by the students when taught.

“For this reason, we strongly advise that the government should not toy with the idea of skipping the third term of the 2019/2020 academic session or promoting students to the next class without writing examinations.”

Oniye, however, commended Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq for the bold steps his administration has so far taken in addressing the challenges facing the education sector in the state.