Port Harcourt - Some states in the Niger Delta
region said on Wednesday that adequate
preparations had been put in place to check
Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) spread ahead of
schools resumption on September 22. A survey showed that stakeholders such as the
Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Parents, and
the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) are
insisting that state governments should provide
needed materials to check the spread of the
virus. State governments on their part have been
carrying out sensitisation and awareness
campaigns for teachers and health workers on
how to prevent EVD and measures to take if
there are reported cases. In Rivers, the government and UNICEF
conducted training for 5,000 teachers in private
and public schools on Ebola prevention. The Commissioner for Education, Alice Nemi,
said government would shut down schools
without pipe borne water. Nemi told the teachers that the aim was to
ensure that students and pupils washed their
hands with soap and maintained good hygiene
in schools. The Commissioner for Information and
Communications, Ibim Semenitari, however,
said that no decision had been taken on the
September 22 resumption date given by the
Federal Government. The Chairman of NUT, Godfrey Nwogu, said the
union would comply with the directive of its
national body on the resumption date. However, Bright Amaewhule, the proprietor of
Nobles school in Port Harcourt, said the school
would resume on Sept. 22. "We will comply with the directive of the
Federal Government because the state
government had already trained teachers on
the virus and how to check it. "Private school proprietors like ours have also
bought infrared thermometer to check the
temperature of pupils and students in our
schools. "We have pipe borne water with soaps and even
a medical team to ensure that our students are
protected at all times,’’ he said. The principal of a government secondary
school, who sought anonymous, said the school
would wait for the state government to give the
go ahead before re-opening schools. "Our school, like others is owned by the state
government and we have to comply with their
instruction. But, we want government to assist
some of its owned schools to repair our
boreholes to ensure adequate water supply for
the students,’’ he said.
Source: "m.news24.com/nigeria/National/News/States-prepare-schools-to-check-ebola-virus-ahead-of-resumption-20140918"