FCTA Threatens To Shutdown Schools For Violating COVID-19 Guidelines: The Federal Capital Territory Administration FCTA says it will not hesitate to shut down any school within the territory that violates the Covid-19 guidelines recommended for the safety of students who resumed on Tuesday to prepare for their exit examination.
The Chairman of FCT Ministerial Task Force on Covid-19 Enforcement, Comrade Ikharo Attah who led the team to inspect some schools within the nation’s capital, stated that the administration cannot afford to expose the students to the danger of contracting the virus, and therefore will not compromise the guidelines for resumption of the schools.
Attah said that FCT Minister, Mallam Muhammad Bello has made it clear to heads of schools within the territory, that he is not ready to risk the life of any student or teacher and therefore will not condone negligence in handling of the situation.
Sanctions
He said that any school, both public and private that fails to adhere strictly to the guidelines would be shut down immediately, while their students will be transferred to other serious schools and the management of such schools will be sanctioned appropriately.
“Any school that fails to comply, we will do everything within our power to safeguard the students. And such schools will likely be shut down through legal processes and the students will have to go and write exams somewhere else, pending when the school complies with the safety guidelines and those responsible for the school mismanagement will be brought to book.
“The FCT Minister, Mallam Muhammad Bello has been very clear about it, that he is not going to risk the life of any student or teacher. He said that everyone must come in within the context of safety”, he said.
Attah said most of the public and private schools his team visited to ascertain their level of compliance, had shown about 80 percent preparedness towards the safety of students and teachers in their respective schools, by providing adequate hand washing points, sanitiser and decontaminated environment.
According to him, the compliance level at some private and public schools within the city centre was commendable.
He however frowned at the attitude of some heads of schools for their failure to adequately prepare the school environment before the resumption.
He warned defaulters to immediately make amends and said the inspection will continue at the satellite towns on Friday because the administration will not relent in its efforts to ensuring that the school environment was safe.
“From our own point it is already encouraging, in the sense that the schools we have been to, both government and private, if we assess them at a point of average, you will score them about 85 percent preparedness. They have complied. You could see hand washing points, hand sanitiser and there was also social distancing in their classrooms.
“In some classes where they used to have about 80 students, they have been reduced to 20 and 25 in some cases. In some of the schools, we also saw well equipped healthcare facilities. In some of the schools, we are also not very happy and we have warned very strongly that they should brace up”, he added.
