Katsina orders schools to remain shut

Kastina State government has ordered primary and secondary schools across the state to remain under lock and key until further notice.

The Commissioner for Education, Prof. Badamasi Lawal, said at the weekend that education authorities in the country were still evaluating the situation regarding the impact of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) when schools eventually resume.

Lawal said the exit examinations were designed to test the possibility of the students contracting the virus.

The latest development dashed hopes of parents and students for schools re-opening after some 6,000 secondary school students were allowed to sit for their final-year examinations.

The students, while writing their examinations, were however made to sit under strict conditions to check the spread of COVID-19.

Some parents and students had called on the state government to look into the possibility of re-opening of schools like other states of the federation.

They said since students could write their final-year examinations and not contract the virus, schools could commence academic activities with measures put in place to check the spread of the disease.

But the state government insisted on not re-opening schools till the Federal Government gave a new directive on the matter.

“The ongoing final examinations for exit classes in schools were also designed to see the possibility of students contracting the disease in the course of writing the examinations.”

“Luckily for us here in Katsina, none of the over 6,000 students from public schools involved in the examinations contracted the disease,” he said.

Lawal added that some schools, which had been damaged due to rainstorm and dilapidation, had been renovated in preparation for possible re-opening.