The Academic Staff Union of Universities, on Monday, warned the Federal Government against reopening tertiary institutions without taking concrete steps to curb the spread of COVID-19.
Zones of the union said social distancing and other COVID-19 protocols were practically impossible in public tertiary institutions, which were always overcrowded in the country.
They, therefore, warned that any attempt to reopen the institutions would not only be suicidal, but also worsen the spread of coronavirus.
Also, the National Vice –President of the union, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke, in an interview with The PUNCH, called on the Federal Government to upgrade the education sector, if it wanted universities across the country to resume.
Recall that the Minister of State for Education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba had, on August 22 said tertiary institutions shut in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic in March, would reopen “very soon.”
During a Nigerian Television Authority programme, Nwajiuba said the Federal Government was also working to end the strike embarked upon by ASUU.
But the National Vice–President, Osodeke, in the interview with The PUNCH, called on the Federal Government to upgrade the education sector, if it wanted universities across the country to resume.
Osodeke said that if government believed that the education sector was critical, it should meet the COVID-19 guidelines which it prepared for school reopening.
He maintained that a topnotch procedure was created at airports because the elite children needed to be kept safe while returning to school abroad, whereas other Nigerian children were asked to go back to campuses which were not COVID-19 complaint.
