A news report circulating on social media claims that the Federal Government, vice-chancellors and National University Commision have agreed to reopen schools on September 7, 2020.
The story was published by different blogs, including Inside School, with a different headline that states “Post Covid-19: All Schools In Nigeria to Resume on September 7”.
The news was also published by the Nigerian Pilot on August 19 and a snapshot of the newspaper continues to circulate on WhatsApp.
A fact-check of this claim revealed that the story is false. The Federal Government and vice-chancellors did not agree to reopen schools on September 7 as claimed by the newspapers.
Full Text
On August 19, Nigerian Pilot published a news headline “FG, VCs and NUC agree to reopen schools September 7”.
The newspaper asserted that the “Federal Government, Vice Chancellors and National University Commission, NUC, have agreed to reopen schools in Nigeria on September 7 after a prolonged meeting.
“During the meeting it was agreed that all schools in the country, including universities, polytechnics, colleges of education, secondary schools and others are to resume on the agreed date above.
“Our reporter gathered that all schools that operated based on the nation’s education system, which is based on the 1-6-3-3-4 formula will definitely resume full academic year.
“However the Federal Government also said that it will continue to engage striking members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, ahead of the reopening of the universities and other tertiary institutions.”
No Date to Reopen Schools – Minister
Nigeria’s Minister of State for Education, Chukwumeka Nwajiubu says no date has been fixed for school reopening in the country.
During a briefing of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 on Monday, August 24, Nwajiubu said although the government had continued to engage stakeholders, there was no specific date for schools reopening.
The minister, however, expressed optimism that the resumption date would be announced soon but stressed that “we are not going to be brandishing dates.”
The minister said about 78 private universities were insisting on resuming, while 50 per cent of the public universities said no to the resumption.
Conclusion
The claim that schools will reopen on September 7 is false and failed the verification processes.
The State Minister for Education said there was no fixed date for schools resumption in Nigeria.
Although there is continued dialogue among the stakeholders on the resumption date, they are yet to identify a particular date for resumption.
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Good journalism! Please keep up the good job of giving us factual and reliable information.
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