The Ebonyi State Government has approved October 5, 2020 as general resumption date for both private and public primary, secondary and tertiary schools in the State.
The approval was made known to journalists by the State Commissioner for Education, Onyebuchi Chima, during a joint briefing on the outcome of Thursday’s State Executive Council Meeting in Abakaliki.
Chima explained that the approval was sequel to a memo earlier sent to Governor David Umahi by his Ministry in that regard, which was deliberated upon at the meeting and approved by the Governor.
He however noted that Kindergarten and Nursery Schools are excluded in the resumption as a measure to protect little children and infants who may not be able to observe COVID-19 preventive measures.
In furtherance to COVID-19 preventive measures, Chima explained that the Council approved that there would be two sessions each day in both the primary and secondary schools.
Under the arrangement, the Junior Primary and Secondary students will attend the morning session from 8am to 12 noon, while their senior classes counterparts would take their turn from 12:15pm to 4:15 pm, each having a total of four hours to study per day.
According to the Commissioner, all the Schools have been given three weeks from the approved resumption date to round off the 2019/2020 academic session to enable the commencement of the 2020/2021 academic year.
He added that the Council also set up a Committee chaired by the SSA to the Governor on Religious and Welfare Matters to ensure effective compliance to the resumption plans.
The Committee has as its Secretary the SA on Vocational education, Princess Adaeze Nwaji.
With the approval of the resumption date, the government directed all nonacademic staff of Tertiary Institutions in the State to get ready to fully resume work in spite of the strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities.
Meanwhile, Umahi during the meeting assigned portfolios to three Special Assistants recently sworn in.
They included the immediate past Chairmen of Ezza South and Afikpo North local government areas, Sunday Ogodo and Ogbonnia Oko Enyim respectively.
The other was the immediate past Commissioner for Finance, Prof. Ogbonnaya Chukwu, who Umahi named SAs on School Monitoring.
According to the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Cletus Ofoke, who briefed on that, the Governor also assigned school supervisory roles in various areas to other principal officers of government, including the Deputy Principal Secretary, Emmanuel Obasi; Deputy Chief of Staff, Okey Nwakpu; and SSA on Higher Education, Prof. Sunday Idenyi.
Ofoke added that apart from monitoring and supervising schools in their assigned jurisdictions, the Principal Officers and Assistants should also monitor teachers, civil servants and other categories of workers in their different assigned local government areas and Development Centres.
Recall that the State Government, through the Ministry of Education had earlier approved the commencement of Basic Education Certificate Examination from September 21, 2020.
