Though the Federal Ministry of Education has expressed fears that schools may not reopen soon due to the increasing wave of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) infection in the country, Bauchi State Government has insisted that all its schools must resume on Monday, 18 January 2021.
State Commissioner for Education, Dr Aliyu Tilde, said that the schools would go on to reopen irrespective of any review made by the Federal Government.
The Commissioner who was reacting to the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, over the statement he made on Monday at the Presidential Task Force briefing that the Federal Government was reviewing the Monday, 18 January school resumption.
According to a statement by the Commissioner made available to Journalists, on Tuesday, he said that the reason the state is insisting is that, “To date, not a single case of COVID-19 infection is reported in our schools.”
“Therefore, regardless of any review that may take place in some quarters, Bauchi State Ministry of Education is determined to reopen schools in the state on 18 January unfailingly, as earlier decided by the State Executive Council,” the Commissioner added.
Tilde added that “The 2020/2021 school calendar starts that day. Unless we stand resolute on our school plan for the year, the session will be mutilated by fear of COVID-19,” Tilde said.
He promised that the state would avoid COVID-19 by using its familiar protocol of face masks, social distance, sanitation, and testing in schools “as it is elsewhere not with further closures except under a resoundingly imminent emergency.”
The Commissioner then urged parents, teachers, students, and other stakeholders to prepare for the year’s academic session.
