COVID-19: Doctors, parents, teachers caution FG against opening of schools

As pressure mounts on the Federal Government to reopen schools across the country in the wake of the 2nd phase relaxation of the COVID-10 restrictions on socio-economic activities, critical stakeholders in the health and education sectors have called on the Federal and state governments to exercise restraint in reopening schools.

In May, the Presidential Task Force, PTF, on COVID-19 had recommended that states be allowed to decide on the reopening of schools, has not fixed issued for resumption and reopening of schools across the country.

Calling for caution, the Nigeria Medical Association, NMA, and the Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists of Nigeria, ALMSN, warned against any plan to rush to reopen schools.

In a similar response, the National Parent Teacher Association of Nigeria, NAPTAN, and the Nigeria Union of Teachers, NUT, said a critical appraisal of the situation must be done to arrive at a decision that would not lead to regret later, even as the

It is better to lose a session than lose lives — Prof Innocent Ujah, National President, NMA

On his own part, the President of the Nigeria Medical Association, NMA, Prof Innocent Ujah said the coast was not yet clear to reopen the schools.

“We may not have to rush; if it is left to me I would say we should have waited for the next quarter and see what will happens. It is better to lose a session than losing our lives. It does not matter whether we are losing a session rather than escalating the community transmission and die of COVID 19. Nobody has the answer when it is rising or the trend.

Ujah, who frowned on the poor compliance of the public with the relaxation guidelines, argued that it is better to lose a session than lose lives.

“I think it is better to be alive than dying or be infected. I think we should be cautious. If the coast is not clear because we don’t even know the directions that we are going, the coronavirus cases are increasing. Fatality is increasing even though it is about is still under 3 percent but any one life lost matters.

“It is difficult to say what is on ground to make the state government think of telling students to go back to school. Have they gotten the emergency protocols including the wearing of face masks, hand washing, and use of sanitisers and social distancing?

“Those are the basic protocols that they need. We don’t even know the capacity of the classrooms. Are they congested? Will they just sit down and take lectures and go home and not go for sports? If they go home and they are infected will they not infect their family members? There so many questions unanswered so we need to be cautious, ” he asserted.