Recently, the Nigerian Union of Teachers directed its members nationwide to ignore the September 22 resumption date pronounced by the federal government. They claimed the earlier announced date of October 13 is safer, both for students and teachers alike.
They are wrong. And this is why.
First, the government was the one that shifted the resumption date in the first place. Because that was the correct thing to considering the prevailing circumstances at that time. Everyone applauded the wise precautionary measure. Of course, except private schools owners, who wondered how shutting schools could simply prevent the spread of the virus when markets, churches, and other various public places remain opened. We all condemned such warped stance from the private school owners, who seemed only interested in their pockets, even at the expense of human lives.
But then, suddenly, things started getting better. We started having survivors, and quarantined persons started testing negative. Barring the madness of Ibukun Koye, the callous diplomat who transported the virus beyond Lagos, we succeeded, as a nation in containing the scourge. At the end, we had lost seven persons, and twelve had miraculously survived!
That necessitated an expert advice on all the precautionary measures taken so far. With the success achieved, it was discovered that there is no justification for such an extension in school resumption. The decision was taken by experts in public health managemen from the WHO and other international agencies who have all but certified Nigeria ebola-free. It is good news to private school owners obviously, but the truth is that they couldn’t have forced such a change.
The threat teachers wouldn’t resume because they don’t want to risk their lives and that of the students is nothing but an oversensationalisation of the ebola issue, and a crass display of ignorance from those who should know; the teachers.
What I thought the teachers should be doing is strategising on how to improve the personal hygiene of their students and teaching them what they couldn’t have known at their various homes about the virus, for example, schools should be able to tell students that bathing in hot salt water is stupidity. Unfortunately, some teachers themselves did bathe with salt water. No wonder.
The simple truth is that there is no known case of ebola in Nigeria at the moment. So there is no reason why schools should remain closed. By hinging non resumption on ebola, and forcing state teachers unions to stay away from work, teachers are showing that they have very little knowledge of the virus, its operations, its containment, and we should be worried that they may not even have adequate knowledge about its preventions. They should face their work, and leave private schools out of their display of sheer lack of information.