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By Amos Odeh, Yenagoa
The Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Bayelsa State wing, has advised the state government not to undermine the role of their union in ensuring better and qualitative education in the state.
The union through its secretary, Comrade Johnson Hector, made their position known to journalists in Yenagoa, the state capital.
He mentioned that upon the shutdown of the educational system in the state following the novel corona virus pandemic, save for rumours on a possible resumption date, the government has not consulted the NUT on a suitable school reopening date.
The teachers’ union scribe urged the government to as a matter of utmost interest, for the education of the children and wards of Bayelsans, show proof of their preparedness to resume school amidst increasing cases of Covid-19 infection in the state.
According to him, the state primary and post primary sub sectors have deficit of teachers, noting that more worrisome is that the largest number of schools and students are in the rural areas where they lack sufficient awareness on Covid-19, just as he stated that there is also the lack of adequate health facilities to contain the spread of the disease in the event of infection amongst students and teachers respectively.
“We’ve made our position on resumption date known to the government through our national body,” he said.
“So if the state government wouldn’t heed to our advice and resume schools in the state amidst worsening cases of Covid-19 then maybe we’ll ask our teachers to sit at home”, he added.
“Can the government provide PPEs such as sanitizers, face marks, running water and soaps for all the government owned schools in the state,” the NUT scribe asked.
“They must not forget that our schools are predominantly in the hinterlands where there’s still little or no awareness on the containment of Covid-19,” he restated.
“In most of these communities there’re no health facilities. So let the Government tell us how they can contain the pandemic in these localities in the event of an outbreak in any school there,” the union added.
You would recall that there have been back and forth resumption dates of schools in Nigeria amidst worsening cases of the novel corona virus disease, with the Federal Government hinting that August 3, 2020 is the new date while the Bayelsa NUT says the state government has kept the union in the dark on a possible date.
