Governor Seyi Makinde has declared that schools in Oyo state may remain shut till July 15, 2020.
This is just as he added that by that date, the second term could resume and get concluded within two weeks, while the third term will immediately kick off.
The governor, who was speaking at the Secretariat of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Oyo State branch, located at Labour House, American Quarters, Agodi, Ibadan, during a special programme to mark this year’s Worker’s Day and which was held in accordance with the Covid-19 protocol of social distancing, assured workers in the state that his administration would readily give priority attention to their welfare.
The governor said that July 15 is a “drop-dead date” already picked by the government, noting that the administration remained hopeful that it will be able to reopen schools by that date.
He said: “I was having a discussion with private school owners and the schools are all closed. They rely on the school fees to pay the teachers they have employed. Now, the children are at home, they have to keep the teacher but there is no fund to pay. My idea is, we need to let the parents know that this period that their children are at home, we take it as their long vacation. We have a drop-dead date of July 15th. We are hopeful that we will be able to open the schools by July 15th and if we do that, they will complete the two weeks of the second term and immediately start the third term. This means there would not be any long holiday again and they will just flip around and start the next term.”
