By Ben Adoga
As FCT schools resume Monday, the Federal Capital Territory Administration, FCTA says it has put adequate measures to ensure the safety of every students in the territory as the 2021/2022 academic session.
Chairman, FCT Secondary Education Board, SEB, Alhaji Musa Yahaya, gave the assurance when he led a team of officials from Education Secretariat and UBEB to monitor school resumption in the territory on Monday in Abuja.
Some of the schools visited were: Government Secondary School Gwagwalada; Kingdom Heritage Model School, Gado Nasko Science Primary School; and Junior Secondary School, Phase 3, all in Gwagwalada Area Council.
Yahaya insisted that the FCT was safe, and that the authorities were not resting on their oars in ensuring that every school and child was secured in the schools.
“It is something that we must do to secure the lives of our future leaders; we don’t come out boldly to tell people this is what we are doing.
“A lot of measures have been put in place and we have to assure parents that the authorities have done very well in keeping the students safe in our respective schools,” he said.
Yahaya said the objective of monitoring the school resumption was to access the level of student turnout and ensure compliance with the COVID-19 preventives measures, adding that adequate orientation had been given to the students and teachers on all aspects of the COVID-19 protocol.
“It is a normal tradition that when schools resume, we make it out to assess the level of resumption particularly this period when we have the Third Wave of COVID-19 pandemic.
“So, it will enable us see the rate of compliance with the COVID-19 protocol, and look at the percentage of resumption as well as how ready the schools are, with regards to neatness, facilities and staff level of compliance to resumption.
Also, the principal, Junior Secondary School Phase III Gwagwalada, Hadiza Egigogo, confirmed that security personnel have been deployed to the school gate to screen people coming in and out of the school.
“The insecurity issue is on ground, but with God, everything is taking shape. The security personnel at the school gate ensure that the established protocol are followed by those trying to gain access to the school.
“We have about 70 per cent of our students in school today, and the first activity we often conduct is resumption test, to make them participate, in order to encourage them to come to school,” she said.
It will be recalled that there had been security challenges in the country with school children kidnapped for ransom in nearby states like Niger and Kaduna, a development that sent shivers to parents across the country.