Oyo Govt Makes U-Turn, Changes Resumption Date for Students

By Abiodun Ogunrinde, Ibadan

The Oyo State COVID-19 Task Force has
changed the resumption date for Primary six, Junior Secondary School III and Senior Secondary School III students in the state.

The Task Force, which rose from a two- and-a-half-hour meeting today,
reviewed the state of preparedness of the schools ahead of the planned resumption.

A statement by the Chief Press Secretary
to Governor Seyi Makinde, Mr. Taiwo
Adisa, confirmed that the Commissioner
for Education, Barrister Olasunkanmi
Olaleye and experts from the Emergency
Operations Centre (EOC) had been going round the schools to determine
compliance with the COVID-19 prevention
protocols put in place by the schools.

The statement added that the team has since discovered that a space of one
week was needed to enable the schools
test-run the facilities, especially the hand-washing points and the security
measures.

The statement read: “By the new
arrangement, Teachers are to resume to the schools on Monday June 29, 2020, while students in critical classes including Primary 6, JSS3 and SSS3 will resume a week later on July 6, 2020.

“As of Monday, June 22, no fewer than
372 Heads of Schools have been
trained by the EOC on the management
of the COVID-19 containment
procedures, while each of the schools
is to appoint an Incident Manager, who will ensure compliance with the
approved COVID-19 protocol.

“Each student is expected to wear face masks, while the schools are to
prepare well laid out hand washing
spots to guarantee regular washing of
hands by the students and teachers.

“The Task Force also resolved that by July 15, the state government would
have reviewed the situation with the
schools and come to a conclusion
whether the remaining classes would be able to resume or whether the students would have to wait to resume the new session in September 2020.

The statement also added that the
community testing embarked upon by the state government has ensured that close to 8,000 tests have been conducted on
residents.

The community testing is currently going on in 10 locations, across the state, while testing would be regularly conducted from the secondary health centres located in the seven administrative zones of the state after the ongoing massive community’s testing exercise.

The Task Force urged residents of the state to remain calm and to continue to
observe the COVID-19 precautionary
guidelines, as according to it, the rising number of positive cases in the state has to do with the ongoing massive
community testing.

“The treatment protocols already put in place by our medical experts have ensured that those infected are being discharged in record time,” the
statement read.