Adedoyin Cautions Govt Against
Reopening Schools Religious Centres
Renowned educationist and the
Chancellor and proprietor of Oduduwa University, Ipetumodu, Ife North Local
Government, His Royal Eminence, Dr. AbdulRahaman Adegoke Adedoyin has cautioned
the government against the reopening of schools, churches, mosques and other
like gatherings until a permanent solution has been found to the problem of
COVID-19.
Dr. Adedoyin who was reacting to
calls by numerous calls by Nigerians on the government to lift the ban on
schools and religious gatherings noted that reopening schools and religious gatherings
without having found a cure or vaccine for the Coronavirus would be like the
country sitting on a keg of gun powder and may have serious implication on the
citizens whose lives the government should protect.
According to him, even with the
shutting down of the schools and religious centers, the figures being released
daily by the National Centre for Disease Control indicated that the number of
infected persons are on the rise with the highest number of daily discovered cases
recorded last Saturday
Dr. Adedoyin noted that there are
certain posers to be answered by teachers, school owners, parents as well as
those at the helms of affairs before the thought of opening schools could
emanate.
According to him, teachers should
ask themselves if they are ready to unnecessarily put themselves at risk in
their daily interactions with students while teaching and even while marking
scripts without any risk allowance or compensation to their families in case
they die from contracting Covid-19 from work even as their families are also in
the danger of contracting d virus from them.
He also raised some challenges
likely to be faced by school owners, if schools were to be reopened as being clamored for. These include: what approaches would be adopted, if it was
discovered that a student shows COVID-19 symptoms during learning, are they to
quarantine the teachers, the whole class, or the whole school? How often should
the temperature of teachers and students be tested? How easy will it be to test
the whole school before lessons? Are the teaching and learning going to continue
if the school runs out of sanitizer? And if the teacher is in self-quarantine,
who will take his/her course load?
Dr. Adedoyin noted that parents should
also, be faced with the fear that the children could bring the dreaded COVID-19
home from school and should, therefore, consider if education is of higher
priority to them than their children’s lives
He also noted that responsible
authorities should also consider if all schools have enough facilities like
classrooms, desks, hostel accommodation, beds, and beddings to effectively
maintain social distancing in all schools and whether they are ready to employ
more teachers since the teacher to pupil ratio will decrease.
He reminded the government that
COVID-19 is spread by air and contact which is inevitable if the government
decides to reopen educational and religious institutions adding that while the
people continued to pray and hope for the best, the government should focus its
attention on research aimed at finding
either a cure or a vaccine to end the COVID-19 pandemic.
