Covid-19: No Plan to Reopen Schools Soon, Says Kano Government

Kano State Government has debunked the rumour and the report circulating that there is plan to reopen schools in the state.

The reports claimed that the state government is considering reopening of its schools and has set up a committee to see the possibility.

However, the Chief Press Secretary of the State Ministry of Education, Mallam Aliyu Yusuf, described the report and the rumour as “fake news” in a statement.

“Kano State, like other states, received a document from the Federal Ministry of Education containing proposed guidelines to be put in place whenever it is appropriate to re-open schools, which we were asked to review and give our input.

“It was in the course of the review of the documents that the Ministry of Education constituted an Ad-hoc Committee to undertake the assignment. Its input will be transmitted back to the federal education ministry.

“The ministry also wishes to debunk a widely circulated rumour that a directive was issued to private schools to suspend online lessons for their students.

“This news is equally untrue as even the state government is conducting similar programmes through radio and television stations,” he said.

Mallam Aliyu added that the ministry warned all private schools in the state to refrain from conducting assessment examinations online as second term academic activities have already been suspended.

“Government has already suspended the second term academic activities, especially test and conduct of examinations.

“A circular has been widely circulated to school operators to halt the conduct of student assessment and examination.

“However, we reliably gathered that some schools operating within the state refused to adhere to the circular.

“Some are conducting various forms of assessment of their students under the cover of the online classes to the extent of collecting 3rd term school fees from parents.

“Some of these schools went as far as collecting huge amounts as a cost of data and the online classes.

“This is a clear violation of the directive given by the Kano State Government.

“It is to be noted that the ministry has compiled evidence of such violations of the directive and will soon invite owners of such schools for proper disciplinary action. No one is above the law.”

He advised the general public to stop consuming information from unverifiable sources and to always disregard misleading information.

“The general public should disregard any misleading information propagated by some unpatriotic elements who are desperate to cause confusion in the state education sector for their selfish intentions,” he cautioned.