Paul Osuyi, Asaba
A total of 29,525 students will on Tuesday resume for academic activities across various public secondary schools in the 25 local government areas of Delta State.
The returning students are expected to participate in this year’s Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) organized by the West African Examination Council (WAEC).
Addressing newsmen in Asaba on Monday on the preparedness of the state, Commissioner for Basic and Secondary Education, Patrick Ukah, said all arrangements have been perfected to ensure a smooth academic period in school.
Ukah who confirmed that materials for preventing the spread of COVID-19 had successfully be distributed to schools, stated that adequate measures were in place to ensure that prescribed protocols are maintained by students and teachers.
“We expect to have just 20 students in a class to ensure physical distancing. In Delta State we have be in constant touch with the Federal Government and we have been fine tuning strategies for resumption.
“And we find out that all the plans we have as a state is in line with what the Federal Government and the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) had stipulated.
“So for now we are ready, and we pray to God that we will not have any incident. But we are working closely with the ministries of health and environment to handle any incident that comes up.
“We have taken one teacher and one student each to be in charge of the classes to ensure that the prescribed protocols are maintained. But the good thing is that the people coming to schools are older in age,” Ukah said.
According to him, between 500 and 750 litres of water storage tank have been provided for 284 schools across where there was no water before now.
He added that power generating sets have been provided for 48 schools that lacked public power supply, pointing out that arrangements were in place for release of funds to school managements every week for supply of water and fuel.
“There will be no general assembly, assembly can be done in individual classrooms. And before any lecture, we will first take a run down of the NCDC protocol on COVID-19 to refresh the mind of the children.
“So with 20 in each class, it is expected that we will be able to manage any incident that may crop up.
“The students will be allowed five minutes of break to walk around in open air where they can just remove the mask and take in air. We want to try to leave them in school only when necessary,” Ukah added.