Having been frantically closed down for three months in response to the spread of the novel coronavirus in the country, schools are now permitted to reopen, albeit in a specified fashion. Nonetheless, this is still a huge relief to parents and without a doubt to the school administrators who have had to combat the economic fallout of the lockdown measure that was foisted on them, and save many private schools from bankruptcy. This is also a wonderful glimmer of hope for a number of teachers working in private schools who have had their salaries suspended, not out of spite from the schools but out of sheer financial unsustainability of the continual payments of salaries while students are not around.
According to the federal government, only the graduating classes such as primary 6, JSS3 and the SSS3 are permitted to go back to school in order to ensure that they do not get held back by this unfortunate event, and of course very little is being mentioned about the other classes and what might be done about that, perhaps that is because things can be a little more flexible with those and the decisions on what to do can be left to the individual schools to make without any serious consequences.
Although there are serious concerns about this decision of the federal government, as regards just how safe things are expected to be with schools being basically reopened, especially with the understanding that most students do not care about the social distancing rule they are expected to follow while in school, combined with the fact that it will be almost ludicrous to expect primary 6 students to keep to mask wearing regulations while in school. All these are very worrying for parents of students who have to return to schools because of this change in policy. However, there is a bright side to this that should quell parents’ fears. For instance, multiple studies have shown all around the world, especially in Europe and in the United States that risks posed to young people, even up to the age of forty are essentially negligible and children are very unlikely to infect adults even if they contract the disease from their mates. In a Chinese study, not a single case was found in which a child infected his parents or other adults; instead, it was the other way round. Add to these the fact that the American Academy of Pediatrics which is the association of doctors for children in the United States are now encouraging their government to reopen the schools, stating that there is not a justifiable concern for which the schools may be kept locked down.
While this is a big win in a certain way for the educational sector in the country, there remains some unanswered questions in matters concerning some of the students that will be resuming this July. The question of how the West African Secondary School Examinations will be carried out still lingers in some minds, since none of the other four nations that participate in this exercise – Ghana, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Gambia have lifted restrictions on their secondary schools at the moment. This could mean that Nigeria alone will march ahead and embark on the exams alone, or in a way, the other nations may be pressured into following our lead in this grand step and finally help bring a closing chapter to the torturous academic year.
