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Friday, 18 September, Some Parents and Teachers in Kwara State stormed the State Secretariat of National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools demanding the reopening of schools.
The protesters said the continuous closure of schools in the state has relegated their livelihood.
Sequel to this development , A Public Affairs Analyst, Dr. Abdullahi Alabi of the Department of Politics and Governance, Kwara State University has cautioned the state government not to treat the issue with levity.
Dr. Alabi who stated this in an exclusive interview with Maxilensnews noted that, the overbearing effect of continuous closure of schools is no longer bearable.
In his argument, over seventy percent of school leavers and graduates in Kwara State are teachers, this implies that seventy percent of the state’s population have been under economic hardship for the past six months, the situation therefore calls for urgent attention.
He suggested that the state government could use the olden days’ shift and rotational schooling system, where some students attend school in the morning while others attend in the afternoon as an interim solution to curb over crowding.
Dr. Alabi described as unacceptable, a situation where students and pupils were instructed to stay at home and their parents were asked to come to work, noting that they stand vulnerable being alone at home.
When asked about the dangers the state government claimed it’s trying to avoid as a student was reported to have contacted covid-19 during the just concluded Senior School Certificate Exam conducted by WAEC, the analyst noted that the excuse was not tenable, as the fraction of a student among thousands of students is less than immeasurable minute.
He therefore called on the state government to be proactive in addressing the challenges connected with school resumption has done by other states in Nigeria.
Abdullahi Alabi, Ph.D., CILGPAN,CIPDM, Lecturer Department of Politics and Governance Kwara State University, Malete
