We won’t shut down schools for polls –FG

The Federal Government on Monday met with the 36 states Commissioners for Education, including the F.C.T. Education Secretary where they all agreed that schools should not be shut down for the coming general elections.The Minister of Education, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau, presided over the meeting, which was held in his office in Abuja.Those in attendance included stakeholders in the education sector drawn from the National Universities Commission, the National Board for Technical Education and the National Commission for Colleges of Education.The government hinged the decision to keep the schools running on the academic lapses that were occasioned by the Ebola Virus Disease that broke out in West Africa and other western nations last year.Shekarau, however, said state governments would be mobilised to provide adequate security for boarding institutions marked as polling units for the elections.He advised that “nobody should anticipate violence or crisis during the elections as elections had been conducted in the past while schools were in session.”The stakeholders meeting also placed on hold mid-term breaks for both the public and private institutions.Shekarau said, “The Federal Ministry of Education and managements of NUC, NBTE, NCCE and all other stakeholders in education, after due consultations and deliberations in respect of whether or not schools and all institutions should be closed for the period of the election, hereby resolved as follows:“That all schools and institutions should remain in session while the elections take place over the weekends as stipulated by the INEC timetable. It our belief that we have had elections in the past when schools were in session and in view of the fact that we are just almost halfway into the second term of the school calendar, it is not right to close down the schools now.“Again, we have suffered a lot in our schools during the last Ebola crisis and many schools are battling to catch up with the lost period and there is no reason before us that compels us to decide otherwise in closing the schools.“We also agreed that all schools that are used to having mid-term breaks that have not yet gone on that mid-term break should put it on hold. All mid-term breaks in all schools should be suspended for this term; those on mid-term break already should resume back to their schools immediately and continue their lessons.“Also in schools where we have polling stations, particularly boarding schools whose premises are being used as polling stations, we have decided to call upon the state governments and Ministries of Education to ensure the provision of adequate security.”