The Ogun Government on Friday in Abeokuta announced October 8 as the new resumption date for private and public schools in the state.
The Secretary to the state government (SSG), Taiwo Adeoluwa, announced the new date at a news conference.
Adeoluwa said the development followed an evaluation meeting between representatives of the government and stakeholders in the education sector held on Friday.
The SSG said that the government was anxious to open schools on Sept. 22 in line with Federal Government’s directive, but the level of preparation in some of the schools were not satisfactory.
Adeoluwa, who said the state government had put measures in place to check any possible outbreak of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD), explained that the level of preparations in some primary schools needed to be improved.
“Left to the government, we want to return the students to school on Sept. 22,’’ Adeoluwa said.
“But the operators raised the issue of gadgets and when we went round, we discovered that the facilities in some schools need to be improved.
“The consensus of opinion among the stakeholders is that it is better to tread the path of caution by shifting the resumption date than to risk the safety of our children.
“We need to conduct a very active evaluation and monitoring exercise and ensure that our schools are indeed ready to contain any possible outbreak of Ebola and also to prevent other diseases before the students return.’’
The SSG disclosed that a dedicated team had already been raised to move around the local governments as from Monday to evaluate the state of preparedness of schools.
Also private and public schools in Lagos State will now resume on October 8, 2014.
Governor Babatunde Fashola approved the new resumption date at a stakeholders’ forum held Sunday, at Lagos Television Blue Roof, Agindigbi, Ikeja.
The forum was attended by headteachers and principals of schools in the state. According to the governor, the shift in date is to allow for adequate distribution of. Ebola preventive materials in schools across the state.