Ogun State government has said that all SS3 boarding students in the state must take the tests for COVID-19 and malaria before they will be admitted into their various hostels.
The special adviser to the governor on Primary and Secondary Education Mrs Ronke Soyombo, in a statement, said that the State Ministry of Health has already made provisions for the students to take the tests, as part of the conditions for the re-opening of schools in Ogun.
Soyombo said the “strong condition of admittance” to school was that returning boarding students must present a COVID-19 certificate showing negative.
“To this end, all principals are, therefore, directed to immediately disseminate the above important information to all SS3 learners in the state and to ensure that the above instructions are strictly adhered to as sanctions will be meted out to any defaulting school,” she said.
Soyombo explained that the exercise which began on July 31 and would end on August 3, was ongoing at three public health care facilities in the state.
They include ‘The 250 MTR’ – a white edifice opposite the State Secretariat in the Okemosan area of Abeokuta, the state capital.
The other two facilities are the Ogun State General Hospital in Ado-Odo Ota and the Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital in Sagamu.
Soyombo said that tests of the students were part of the frantic efforts of the state government to ensure a safe learning academic atmosphere for both learners and teachers in all public and private schools.
The Nigerian Government on Monday announced that secondary schools will reopen for students in exit classes from Tuesday, August 4.
“Students will have two weeks within which to prepare for the West African Examination (WAEC) due to start on the 17th of August 2020,” spokesman to the education ministry Ben Ben Goog said in a statement.
The reopening of the schools, Goog said, was the unanimous decision reached today at a virtual consultative meeting between the Federal Ministry of Education, Honourable Commissioners of Education of the 36 states, the Nigerian Union of Teachers, (NUT), the proprietors of private schools, and Chief Executives of examination bodies.