COVID-19: Experts Offer Suggestions For Resumption of Schools


Experts have offered suggestions on how to maintain safe operation in schools after resumption, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Professor Muhammad Ibrahim Yakasai of the Faculty of Education, Bayero University, Kano (BUK), suggested that to ensure the safety of students and other members of school communities, there’s a need for serious awareness campaign, with regard to the reality of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"There must be awareness campaign and student orientation, perhaps to be organised by student affairs’ units, with the involvement of student unions, to be carried out both at lecture halls and other places where students gather. This is to ensure that people come to terms with the reality of the COVID-19 pandemic, especially as many still believe it is a hoax,” Prof Yakasai has said. He said the principle of social distancing must be adhered to where practicable, and ensure that classrooms accommodate a reasonable number of students.

"This is only possible in schools with manageable number of students. When you take universities with population explosion like BUK and the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), that will be difficult to achieve,” he said.

He also suggested the provision of facemasks, hand sanitisers and hand washing facilities to be placed at strategic places such as the entrance of lecture halls, labs, libraries and hostels.

Yakasai also said clinics should be well equipped to be able to respond quickly to emergency situations. Also, Professor Bello Bello said measures must be taken to decongest classes, especially in urban areas where schools have large class sizes. “You already have schools that run on shifts due to their number of students. In that case, maybe you need to increase the number of shifts to include morning, afternoon and evening, especially in urban areas if you are to avoid congestion and ensure social distancing. “There will be problem of shortage of teachers because you cannot ask the same teachers to run three different shifts. In that case, something needs to be done about hiring of teachers,” he said. A professor of Educational Leadership, University of Abuja, Salihu Yusufu Ingawa, said for post COVID-19 recovery, Nigeria should boost e-learning using solar energy, which is cheaper. “We can do it in each school; the problem will be in the training of the teachers and technicians to handle it, but it is much easier,” he said. Prof Ingawa noted that the biggest problem of Nigeria’s education system is the lack of political will despite having the policies. “Long ago, the World Bank tried to get us to start e-learning from rural areas, using solar energy, but it was abandoned,” Ingawa noted. The president of the National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools (NAPPS), Chief Yomi Otubela, also suggested that reopening of schools should be in batches, starting with the terminal classes, including Primary 6, JSS3 and SSS3, to adequately prepare for examinations.