Oyo State Government has announced various measures to prevent the spread of Coronavirus in schools, as students in primary and secondary schools in Oyo State are preparing to resume school on July 6.
The State Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Mr Olasunkanmi Olaleye disclosed this in a statement on Wednesday in Ibadan.
Olaleye said that various training had been given to categories of school heads, principals and teachers on how to monitor and report any sign of illness that showed symptoms of COVID-19 to the authority.
He said the State had set up Emergency Operation Centres (EOCs) in the State capital and at zonal levels and as well as appointed Incident Managers for each school who would report any emergency directly to the EOCs through special communication lines.
He went further to state that each class would have a Warder whose obligation was to relate with the Incident Managers on his or her observations.
“Among the measures are the compulsory hand-washing points at the school entrances and at the entrance of each classroom as well as alcohol-based sanitiser for the use of students and teachers.
“Throughout last week, what we have been doing was to train school heads and teachers of public and private schools, preparing them for this task of taking firm control of preventing the spread of COVID-19 into our schools as we resume.
“Each school has been mandated to strictly enforce social distancing and observe other protocols against COVID-19 among teachers and students as laid down by NCDC.
“Students are to come to school with their face masks and follow instructions on the guidelines from the management, these are imperative since the government cannot lock down forever and education is an aspect of life that should not be allowed to suffer backwardness.
“I can boldly tell you that with these measures in place, the children are safer with us in school than even many homes, imagine situations whereby students are asked to go to private lessons that provide no safety measure.
“Many follow their parents to the market and workplaces where the possibility of contracting the virus is high, so they are rather better kept at school than home,” he said.
NAN reports that teachers of public schools in the state should resume on June 29 in preparation for students resumption by July 6.
(NAN)