Oyo State postpones school resumption by one week

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

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 around 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 handwashing 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 SS3 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 handwashing 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.”