The Lagos State Government has sealed 10 private schools that flouted the closure directives of the federal and state governments as a result of Covid-19 pandemic to ensure the safety of students.
The Director General, Office of Education Quality Assurance, Lagos State, Abiola Seriki-Ayeni, who led the Monitoring and Investigation team of the office, disclosed this during the second and third phase of the massive monitoring of private schools compliance to the directive to curb the spread of the scourge still ravaging the country and the world at large.
According to Seriki-Ayeni, a large number of private schools visited across the state were found to have complied while the non-complaint schools have been sealed.
The exercise, she further stated, would be continuous and encompassing, cutting across all the education districts in the state to discourage the non-chalant attitude of some schools to this directive. Central to the monitoring exercise is the safety of all learners due to their vulnerability.
“No doubt, Covid-19 has had negative effects on our schools but we want students to come out stronger and better. We want to make sure schools are closed; we also want to make sure schools are adhering to the closure directive since the number of Covid-19 infection cases has increased dramatically over time.
On the field, we want to stay put to what we know is true and we want to consistently do it to students and school based staff”.
The Director General, who earlier warned of the danger inherent in the exposure and clustering of students in a class in the name of lesson strictly reiterated that any school where teaching and learning is ongoing while trying to beat government scrutiny without concern for the health and safety of learners will be sealed.