Ebun Olowu
Nigerian students in tertiary institutions, under the aegis of the National Association of University Students (NAUS), National Association of Polytechnic Students (NAPS), and the National Association of Nigerian Colleges of Education (NANCES) today August 19 2020, embarked on a peaceful protest across the country to demand for the immediate reopening of schools at all levels in Nigeria.
The students had earlier given the Federal Government a two-week ultimatum to reopen tertiary institutions. The students took the decision to embark on the strike after a virtual meeting on Tuesday.
The Nigerian government had closed all the schools in the country in March this year to prevent further spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, while the government had continued to ease all the other sectors of the economy, it had said nothing about school reopening.
The students in Senior Secondary School (SS3) are currently writing their West African Senior School Certificate Examination, though the Nigerian government initially did not want to approve the participation of Nigerian candidates in the regional examination.
The Education Minister, Adamu Adamu, said government would prefer the students to miss this year’s examination than be victims of the coronavirus pandemic, but later succumbed after public outcry.
The government is yet to speak on reopening of schools for other levels of education in the country.
While private Universities have continued with their classes online and also organized online examinations for their students, students in public universities did not have the priviledged of online classes, which is compounded by the ongoing strike action of members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
