By Mahmoud Dogara (Bauchi State Correspondent)
The Bauchi State Government has directed primary and secondary schools in the state to resume on the 12th of October 2020, to complete the 2019/2020 academic session, subject to the compliance of COVID 19 regulations on school reopening.
This was contained in a circular on Friday, signed by the State Commissioner for Education, Dr Aliyu Tilde, which was made available to newsmen in Bauchi.
According to the circular, given the low cases of COVID-19 reported in the country and the pressure from parents and councillors on the side-effects of prolonged school closure, some states like lagos, Kogi, Taraba and plateau have reopened their school fully or partially.
The Circular stated that the development led to the meeting, last week in Abuja, of School Exchange Program where Commissioners of Education in the 19 Northern states to discuss among other things, the issue of reopening of schools and Calendar, where a decision was taken, subject to the approval of the state Governors that schools will be opened between now and 30th October 2020.
It stated that, the decision to reopen schools was taken at a stakeholders meeting, which had in attendance, representatives from the ministry of education, health, SUBEB, Bauchi State Agency for nomadic Education, Special Schools Management Board, Nigeria Association of Private Schools amongst others.
"At the meeting, the stakeholders resolved that no school should resume unless it meet the conditions stipulated in the schedule, which implies that not all schools may resume on the 12th of October. In Bauchi state, the school COVID 19 reopening template which was used to reopen the SS3 classes in the month of August, will be expanded to cover other classes"
"That all schools with low population can resume fully and run thier usual school hours since social distance can be achieved while observing other COVID 19 school protocols.Also, parents will provide face masks for their children on all school days and schools under the ministry of education are to use the N700 per child PTA charges to provide Infra-red Thermometer, COVID 19 buckets and soaps while the ministry takes care of the fumigation"
"Schools under SUBEB and private schools can charge N200 per child for the provision of Infra-red Thermometer, COVID 19 bucket, soap and decontamination.That all schools should contract decontamination to BASEPA, which will issue a certificate to that effect.No school should reopen without prior decontamination subject to BASEPA. The school 2019/2020 school calendar will continue till the end of this year and a new school year begins on the 4th of January 2021 and ending in August 13, 2021", the circular reads. NNL.
