Legal giant and founder of Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti, Afe Babalola, has said shutting down schools indefinitely over the COVID-19 pandemic is not advisable.
In a statement on Monday, he suggested ways schools and universities can be reopened in four weeks and still guarantee its students of safety.
Babalola listed the conditions under which “private institutions should be allowed to resume academic activities within four weeks”.
These, he said, included that “the school must establish that it has residential accommodation for all students including most, if not all the staff.
“Parents shall give written undertakings supported with medical certificates that the student is fit/healthy to resume academic work.
“There shall be about three running water tanks at the gate where students will wash their hands with soap. There shall be portable sanitisers. Each student must be armed with the portable sanitiser. There shall be infrared thermometers at the gate where students, staff and anybody coming into the university shall be tested by a nurse or medical personnel.
“The university must have in place the following testing machines: Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR Machine) and Serological Test Machine.
“Each school must have in place a building specially designed to accommodate any student who is suspected to have any type of infectious disease ranging from cough, chickenpox, measles, diarrhea etc other than COVID-19,” he added.
He suggested that final students who were writing before their schools were shut down on March 23, should be allowed to resume and finish their exams within two weeks. He said the new students would resume next.
Babalola also said each school must have testing kits as students will be tested every two weeks in addition to the enforcement of wearing of face masks on the school premises.
He added that each university must have two functional fumigation machines and “ensure all hostels, classrooms, cafeteria, conference halls, and sports facilities shall be fumigated before resumption”.
