Lagos State Commissioner of Education, Mrs. Folasade Adefisayo, has said the resumption of schools in the state would be decided by the Federal Government.

Adefisayo who spoke on Thursday at a virtual meeting, titled, ‘A discussion on guidelines for school resumption’ said that the state would not unilaterally open schools.

The meeting was organised by Association of International School Educators of Nigeria and was moderated by Mrs Kofoworola Karunwi.

We don’t know resumption date yet. The FG shut down schools in Lagos and Ogun states and we have the largest number of cases and deaths . So I cannot give an unequivocal answer. All I know is that we want the children to keep learning and most schools are already doing online and it is not a jolly ride. The Lagos State Government is also having both online and radio classes.

Adefisayo also told the participants at the meeting that the government did not have the financial capacity to support schools financially due to the pandemic which has affected the budget of the state.

We can’t at this point support schools, our budget as a ministry has been cut down by 30 per cent. We are re-strategising and the state cannot do as much as we would have loved to. The government has spoken to the banks and you can go to your banks they’ll assist. I don’t think people should rely on the government at this moment because government is also suffering from lack of funds.

Other issues discussed at the meeting were safety precautionary measures.

Justin Nwosu

Justin Nwosu is the founder and publisher of Flavision. His core interest is in writing unbiased news about Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. He’s a strong adherent of investigative journalism, with a bent on exposing corruption, abuse of power and societal ills.