The governor of Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi has ratified September 21 for the resumption of primary and secondary schools in the South West state.
This comes after the recent approval by the Presidential Task Force (PTF) for the reopening of schools which have been shut since March in an effort to curb the spread of COVID-19.
Fayemi made the announcement in a state-wide broadcast on Sunday evening.
He approved October 2 as resumption date for tertiary institutions in Ekiti State, subject to each institution’s governing council decision.
According to the governor, students in students in SSS II, JSS III and Primary 6 are to resume on September 21, while students in SSS I, JSS II and Primary 5 and 4 are to resume from September 28.
He added that Students in JSS I and Primary 1-3 are to resume on October 19, while pupils in kindergarten and nursery schools are expected to resume on November 2, when more assurances of safety for their age bracket would have been established.
He attributed the decision to reopen schools on the success made on conduct of West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE) after no new case was traceable to students who sat for the examination.
He said, “While we have progressively responded to the initial lockdown with gradual relaxation in line with the progress made, we must remain vigilant as we cannot afford to indulge ourselves such that a spike may recur as a result of flagrant disobedience to the established protocol.
“We cannot afford to go back into another round of lockdown with its attendant repercussions. This point needs to be emphasized; though, there is a national decline in number of cases, there has been a noticeable upsurge in Ekiti.
“One proof of this is the unpleasant but consistent figures that we have recorded in the last month. As at the time I addressed you on August 5, 2020, there were only 152 confirmed cases in Ekiti.
“Today we have recorded a total of 299 cases which means we recorded 147 new cases within a month. You would recall that the total recorded cases from March to August were 152. This suggests that from August to date, we have had near 100 percent new cases, even while national number has maintained a stable decline.”
Source: Cable