Government won’t close schools during elections, insists minister

The Federal Government, yesterday, stated that it has no plans to close private and public schools in the country ahead of the general elections.

Minister of Education, Prof. Adamu Adamu, who disclosed this yesterday at the seventh edition of the Weekend Ministerial Press Briefing, said the move would enable students of voting age who registered in their various institutions to exercise their civic duties during the elections.

The minister also officially announced February 15 to 19 as mid-term break for students of all the 104 unity schools across the country, saying: “Our students in unity schools are not of voting age, but we adjusted the mid-term break to make it fall within the elections period.

“The date for the mid-term break will be from Friday, February 15 to Tuesday, February 19. This is for only unity schools in the country. We are not shutting down other schools.“The essence of this break is to enable parents have maximum time to go and cast their votes and have the freedom to bring their children and wards back to school.

“Even if the child is not of voting age, the parent is of voting age. The break is only for presidential elections. There is no break for governorship elections,” he said.

While reacting to the strike that was called off by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) late on Thursday, Adamu commended everyone involved in the negotiations, adding: “All was for the development of the country’s educational system.

“In spite of my anger and anxiety with ASUU, I must also commend their patriotism and public spiritedness, because the last few weeks were about the struggle for education system and not their allowances.” The minister expressed optimism that Academic Staff Union of Polytechnic (ASUP) would also suspend its two months strike before Monday.