The Nigeria Disease Control Center (NCDC) has revealed why the federal government is reluctant to reopen schools in the country.
Yahya Disu, Head of Risk Communication at NCDC said weak public understanding and compliance with the COVID-19 preventive safety protocol was responsible for the government’s reluctance to reopen schools.
Disu spoke over the weekend during a webinar organized by Hussaini Abdu, the country director of Plan International Nigeria, with funding from the European Union, UN.
He argued that reopening schools would spread the virus further, so they would have to stay closed.
Disu clarified that children are at risk of contracting the virus because of their failure to comply with the protocols.
He said: “The public’s understanding of risk is still very small and that’s because our population structure still consists of youth who may have the disease and have no symptoms.
“The reopening of the schools will spread the disease further. If there is a good compliance level then we could consider reopening the school.
“School kids are probably not going to comply and the disease will spread among them as most of our pupils go to school in vehicles and the transport sector is known to have poor compliance records.”
The federal government had shut down schools in Nigeria as steps to prevent COVID-19 from spreading.
A few days ago, state education minister Emeka Nwajiuba said that the majority of parents opposed the reopening of schools.
