Lagos Battle Ready For Ebola As Schools Resume October 8

THE Lagos State government is already distributing the necessary facilities such as soap, basins for students to wash their hands, gloves and thermometers to schools to prevent the outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) prior to the resumption of primary and secondary schools in the state on October 8. 
    Chairman of Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Lagos State Wing, Comrade Adesegun Raheem said that the agitation has always that the state government, particularly the state Ministry of Education, should comply with the agreement they had with the Minister of Education, Mr Ibrahim Shekarau, which is the basis upon which schools should resume.

    “Experts in the area of public health and doctors, through Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) advised the Minister of Education that before schools resume, certain preventive measures and gadgets must be put in place because children are the most vulnerable to EVD.
   “Let me appreciate his Excellency the Governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN) for proving to us teachers that he is a listening governor. The meeting we had last with him was very fruitful. Arising from that meeting, we concluded that all administrative work that teachers have been doing in schools should continue and normal academic work will commence on October 8, all other things been equal,” he said.
   He added that health personnel of the government are expected to move around to ensure that private schools too have the gadgets to combat Ebola. “Even if Ebola is not in Nigeria, for the fact that it is in some countries, other countries must not go to sleep. Education is on concurrent list of the constitution. It behoves on each state to determine when best the schools will be opened having examined the necessary gadgets on ground for the students and pupils in the schools in their state.”
   On his part, Chairman of Association of Primary School Head Teachers of Nigeria, Lagos State Wing, Comrade Sunday Ademola Okedara said that the issue of resumption date has been laid to rest because they have agreed that immediately the state government gives them all the necessary materials to combat Ebola, schools will resume. He said that the government is already making the necessary materials available to all the schools in Lagos State.
     Materials for the schools in his district (District Six), Okedara revealed, are even more than enough. “District Six covers Ikeja, Oshodi Isolo and Mushin Local Councils and in other districts. These materials are being released and the principals or head teachers in the various local councils have been calling me as their chairman to confirm that they have received the materials.
   “There is an agreement between us and the governor that schools in Lagos State must resume on October 8. I am telling you with the materials available teachers are ready to go back to classrooms on that day of resumption.”
    He added that all approved private schools ought to resume on October 8. “But what they are hiding under is that they are fully prepared and all necessary materials to fight Ebola have been put in place in their various schools. Some of them complied with the Lagos State Government’s directive that schools should resume on October 8, while some said that all necessary materials are ready and they resumed on their own. I don’t know what the state government can do to those schools. They say health is wealth. We must protect our pupils as we must protect ourselves from Ebola.”
     Okedara who is also the head teacher of Majolate Primary School in Onipanu, Lagos said the state government has also made available the infrared thermometers to schools.  “The scanner thermometers have been given to all schools in Lagos State. The gloves have been given to some of the schools (as of Tuesday).      
   He said that the Lagos State government has made available big water tanks to schools without pipe borne water or where the boreholes are not running. “They are going to make sure that a tanker serves each school with water on a daily basis. The governor said he has got in touch with the Lagos State Water Corporation and work is ongoing in our various schools to ensure that we get pipe borne water.”
   But he warned that the parents should not take the free education policy of the state government for a ride. “Because the Lagos State government said it is free education, parents, people in the communities, should not leave these things to the government alone.  As the government is playing its role, let the people contribute their own quotas.
   “Fingers are not equal. If you know that you can sink a borehole in a school, whether primary or secondary, inform the principal of the school. Let them inform the authorities and approval will be given because Lagos State believes in standards.”
    He added that by the time the schools resume on October 8, parents should provide their children with plates and spoons. “It may be plastic or stainless plate, it depends on their capability. Most pupils coming into schools don’t have plates to eat. The food vendors are fond of serving them food on their hands. It is not encouraging.”
    However, the President of National Association of Proprietors Of Private Schools in Lagos State, Chief Yomi Otubela explained that the announcement of government for schools in Lagos State to resume on October 8 came on the eve of September 22 (former resumption date that was announced by the government).
   “Prior to this time, when the news broke that Patrick Sawyer imported Ebola virus to Nigeria, that was July 20, we had started as an association to make researches and to source for information on what could be the best way to prevent Ebola,” Odubela said.
   He disclosed that during their findings and sourcing for information, they invited Lagos State the Special Adviser to the governor on Public Health, Dr Adesina, to sensitize their members on EVD and they were briefed on the origin, the nature, the symptoms and the way to prevent the spread of the disease. He said the Director of State from the National Orientation Agency, Lagos State later came around to sensitize their members on what to do to prevent Ebola.
  “Flyers and posters were distributed during each of these sensitization programmes. We had in attendance over 1,000 schools. This was documented on an audio CD.”
 He added that they were of the opinion that a one day or one off lecture may not be enough to get the information sink into the brain of their members and to make people take action.
     Otubela said that they also instructed their members to go round their communities with samples of flyers for the people in their neighborhood because they were of the opinion that members will only run effective schools when there is no outbreak of any disease like EVD.
    “We also ensure that within the school system, people should provide a supply of water through tap and wash hand basins, to be put near the entrance of individual gate of member schools. As people come into the school, the first thing is to determine their temperature through the use of non-contact infrared thermometers. Anyone whose temperature is above normal should be disallowed from gaining entrance into the school environment.
  “We instructed our schools to be attached to an hospital or a health centre within their environment in case of any emergency. We also said that there is going to be a visit to the school by doctors from the health centre that the school is registered with.”
   The essence of the doctor visiting the school at least once in a week, he stressed, is to ensure that there is sustainability of those preventive measures that are put in place within the school system.
    “The use of sanitizers became an optional thing because we felt that washing of hands with soap and running water is more effective than the use of sanitizers. But for those who can afford sanitizers, they can also add that to the wash hand basin.”
  “We have hand gloves for our trained personnel. The hand gloves are meant for emergencies. We don’t pray for the use of hand gloves here and there because once your hand glove is contaminated, you can easily allow the passage of this virus into your body,” he said.