Samuel Omaji, the National President of Academic Staff Union of Secondary Schools (ASUSS), has urged the Federal Government to take proactive steps to safeguard the lives of teachers and students from COVID-19 before re-opening schools in the country.
Omaji explained that the decision to re-open schools could expose teachers and students to the virus as the government has not done much to justify that.
“For now we have not seen any proactive steps being taken by the government to curb the spread in schools. So if we reopen our schools I am afraid we might have mass spread of the virus in schools.
“No doubt, teachers and students are eager to go back to school but the circumstances are not ideal, we cannot teach and learn under apprehension. Let’s not turn our schools to incubation centres for the virus.
“We also urge the government to put in place life insurance policy for teachers and also ensure that teachers’ salaries are placed on first line charge to serve as morale booster for teachers across the country.
