The Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, has stated that the Federal government was against the reopening of schools in the country today January 18.
Last week, the Minister had announced that his office was reviewing the January 18 reopening date for schools due to the second wave of the pandemic in the country. Many Nigerians expected that the review would lead to the postponement of the date for the reopening of schools. However, on Friday, January 15, the Ministry of Education released a statement approving the January 18 resumption date.
Following the backlash he received from some Nigerians for approving the reopening of schools, Adamu while speaking today Monday, January 18 at the daily briefing of the Presidential Task Force on COVID19, said the Federal Government had reservations about the resumption of schools on January 18 but had to reach a compromise since it does not control all the schools.
In his words
“We sat down, looked at the figures and we took the decision that schools should not open. Unfortunately, we have to state this because it is supposed to be a collective decision, but you must understand that the schools we are talking about, the Federal Government has only about 100 out of thousands of schools.
The schools are under the jurisdiction of states and just as the PTF was unanimous in saying that schools should not open, states were unanimous that schools should open. So, we have to compromise and as PTF we shall monitor what is happening on a daily basis. There could be some review again”
