Nigeria Parents Forum Appreciates FG; Charges States To Fix Resumption Dates For Schools

Nigeria Parents Forum, NPF, is full of appreciations for the Federal Government of Nigeria for releasing guidelines for school resumption. In a statement issued by the forum on Thursday, 16th July, 2020 and signed by the National Coordinator of Nigeria Parents Forum, Mr. Monday Eze, the forum described the President Buhari-led Federal Government as a listening administration. The statement further thanked the governors of the six Southwestern states for following the guidelines to fix August 3 as resumption date for graduating students to enable them sit for the West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examinations organized by West African Examination Council. Nigeria Parents Forum urged other State Governments to follow the example of the Southwestern State Governors to ensure that the careers of the young ones are not put in jeopardy.

The forum dismissed the fears in some quarters that reopening schools will lead to spikes in Covid-19 infection; stating that analyses of NDDC statistics of the pandemic in Nigeria show that children of school age whose immunity levels are normally higher than those of adults have natural resistance to the virus citing this factor as the reason for school resumption in South Africa, Ghana, Norway, Sweden and India inspite of the high mortality rates of Covid-19 in those places. The forum which asked the Federal and State Governments to involve her members in the enforcement of Covid-19 Prevention Protocols in schools believes that with proper enforcement of Covid-19 protocols in schools, teaching and learning would go on without spikes in the pandemic.

The Nigeria Parents Forum had on Friday, July 9, called on the Federal Government of Nigeria to reverse its earlier decision to cancel the West African Senior Secondary Examination and other school examinations for 2020; and to extend school lockdown in Nigeria because of the Covid-19 pandemic to a full session.