Ahead of the reopening of tertiary institutions slated for Monday, September 14, in Lagos State, the State Government has said only final year students will be allowed to resume, before other levels.

Tokunbo Wahab, Special Adviser on Education to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, disclosed this on Thursday, September 10, 2020, while featuring on Channels Television’s Programme, Sunrise Daily.

Wahab said that the Government had put in place necessary facilities and guidelines to ensure a safe reopening of schools in the State.

He emphasized that the resumption of students in the State will be done in phases to ensure a safe learning environment for the students and staff.

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“For our tertiary (institutions) from on the 14th, we are going to start with the final year students across our tertiary institutions. With those final-year students, we are sure that they are older, they are more mature, and they are going to meet up with the protocol as put in place by the institutions based on the regulations of the NCDC (Nigeria Centre for Disease Control).

“In the past few weeks, we’ve been putting in place measures and facilities that will enable our children to come back to school.

“Even at that, what we seek to do from next week is to start a phased reopening of our tertiary institutions.”

Wahab said the students have been having their lectures online all the while and “they are going to come on campus to have their revision one-on-one and then they can now have their exams and their projects.”

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Speaking further, he said: “Basically, we are at a point where scientifically we’ve been proven to have flattened the curve. And it invariably means that we are not as exposed as we used to be some five, four, three months back. So, consequently, we have to find a way to bring our lives back to normal. And in doing that, education is very critical to whatever we are going to do.

“After we have phased them out, maybe after their exams, then, those in the penultimate year will come on campus. So, we are not going to put all our students on campus at the same time.

“For our secondary from on the 21st, they are also going to have a phased resumption.”

Recall that schools across the country were shut in March as part of the measures put in place to tackle the spread of coronavirus.

However, the Federal Government in August announced the reopening of graduating students to write this year’s West African Senior School Certificate Examination from August 17, 2020, through September 12, 2020.

The Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu had subsequently announced that the tertiary institutions in the State will be reopening on September 14, 2020.

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The Governor said that the State is working towards the possible reopening of primary and secondary schools on September 21, 2020. 

 “I am pleased to announce that our tertiary institutions will be allowed to reopen from September 14, 2020, all our tertiary institutions,” the governor had said, adding that secondary and primary schools would resume a week after.

According to Sanwo-Olu, “This decision is not cast in stone and is subject to review of our ongoing modelling and what procedure comes out from the Ministry of Health.”