Federal government shifts school resumption date to October 13th,2014

The Federal Government on Tuesday ordered
that
all primary and secondary schools in the
country
should resume on October 13, 2014 because of
the
outbreak of Ebola in the country.The Minister
of
Education, Ibrahim Shekarau announced the
new
resumption date after a marathon meeting
with all
the 36 state Commissioners of Education in
Abuja
on Tuesday evening.Shekarau, who briefed
journalists after the meeting, said all private
schools in the country should also comply with
the
directive.He added that schools should suspend
their summer programmes with immediate
effect.According to him, each of the private and
public schools will be required to train at least
two
desk officers in collaboration with ministry of
health officials on how to handle Ebola.He
stated,
“All state Commissioners of Education and I
met
this day 26th August, 2014 to discuss issues
related
to the reopening of schools for the new
academic
year (2014/2015) vis-à-vis the Ebola epidemic
issue.“The meeting was also attended by senior
officials of the Federal Ministry of Health. At
the end
of the meeting, the following decisions were
arrived
at as preventive measures to ensure the safety
and
well-being of all students in our schools
throughout
the Federation.“All Primary and Secondary
schools,
both Public and Private are to remain closed
until
Monday 13th October, 2014 which is the new
school
resumption date for all schools throughout the
Federation.“This is to ensure that adequate
preventive measures are put in place before
the
students report back to school. All State
Ministries
of Education are to immediately organize and
ensure that at least two (2) staff in each school,
both Public and Private, are trained by
appropriate
health workers on how to handle any suspected
case of Ebola and also embark on immediate
sensitization of all Teaching and Non-Teaching
Staff
in all schools on preventive measures. This
training
of staff must be concluded not later than 15th
September, 2014.”