It’s unsafe for schools to resume Sept 22 -Poll

Nigerians have said it is not safe for primary and secondary schools to resume on September 22, 2014, noting that the war on the Ebola Virus Disease could not be said to have been won.

The poll opened on September 8, 2014 and closed on September 17, 2014, with 968 respondents participating.
The poll showed that not a few Nigerians are concerned that the war to curtail the dreaded disease, whose vaccine has yet to be developed, may not have been over in the country.
Respondents were asked to choose between ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ to the question: Is it safe for primary and secondary schools to resume on September 22 when the Ebola Virus Disease has not been totally resolved?
Seven hundred and seventy eight respondents, representing 80 per cent, believe it is unsafe for schools to resume on September 22.
Conversely, 190 respondents, representing 20 per cent, believe that asking the students to resume on the said date is a step in the right direction.
After the outbreak of the EVD in Nigeria through Liberian-American Patrick Sawyer, the Federal Government, in July, fixed October 13 as the new school resumption date.
The October 13 date was itself received with mixed feelings.
The Minister of Education, Ibrahim Shekarau, however, on September 5, 2014, shifted the resumption date forward to September 22, after an emergency meeting with State Commissioners for Education, in Abuja.
He premised the decision on the fact that “preliminary measure put in place to curb the spread of Ebola Virus Disease is still intact.”
He said, “We have now agreed that primary and secondary schools, both public and private, will reopen and begin formal classes on Monday, September 22, 2014. While this is in place, we have decided to continue the preventive measures.”
The schools were charged to ensure that they put in place preventive measures to contain the virus.
The 778 respondents aligned with the All Nigeria Conference of Principals of Secondary Schools, which on Thursday, rejected the September 22 resumption date.
The principals premised their objection on the fact that there were no preventive measures on the ground in schools.
President Goodluck Jonathan, however, has a different opinion from the Nigerian Union of Teachers, which has vowed that the schools should not be opened until the war on Ebola is certified to have been won.
Jonathan, while calling on the NUT on Tuesday to shelve its planned strike over the FG’s directive that the schools should reopen on Monday, next week, said as long as the nation’s schools remained shut, the international community would believe that the EVD was still ravaging Nigerians.