Permanent Secretary Bayelsa state Ministry of Education,comrade Walton Liverpool says no date has been slated for the resumption of schools in the state.

Liverpool hinted The Tide this during an interview held with him in Yenagoa.

According to him,that the Federal Government has slated part reopening of schools for 3rd August is not a yardstick that the state must do so.

He noted that due to the peculiar nature of the state in terms of having more far-flung communities in all the Local Government Areas,the Government is being meticulous in resuming schools without adequate preparations, saying that before doing so the state Government through the Ministry of Education would work out appropriate and sustainable modalities to ensuring that Covid-19 is contained in the Education sector within the requisite National centre for disease control,NCDC stipulated guidelines.

Liverpool restated his commitment towards ensuring an unimpeded school curricular,emphasizing that the Ministry has since introduced various e-learning platforms comprising the social and electronic media to

cushion the learning deficit occasioned by the pandemic.

While reacting to the recent feud between the State wing of the Nigeria Union of Teachers,NUT and the Academic staff union of secondary schools,ASUSS the Education Permanent Secretary who served as the pioneer state chairman of the NUT berated ASUSS,saying they took the laws in their hands.

He described ASUSS as an association and not a registered trade union,advising that they desist from further parading themselves as such,just as he restated that under his leadership in NUT years ago a similar splinter group sprung up, reassuring however,that there was a solution to the problem which can still be applied today to amicably resolve the lingering issues rather than parade as a splinter group.

“We’ve not taken a date to resume schools in the state.Even though the Federal Government has taken and again reordered,due to our peculiar problems we’ve not slated any date”, he said.

“Before we reopen we would have to provide measures to containing the spread in and amongst our schools”, he added.

“But to bridge the learning vacuum created by

Covid-19 the Education Ministry has commenced e-learning programmes on different social media platforms and on Radio too for schools and students in both primary and secondary schools in the state”, he stated.

“For ASSUS, my advise for them is that they stop parading themselves as a trade union henceforth.They’re an Association under the NUT and not a trade union as they claim. I’ve been the NUT state chairman and I know this very well” he concluded.

Meanwhile in a press statement made available to The Tide by the Ministry,the permanent secretary has warned owners and the management of private schools in the state to desist from resuming schools.

The pioneer State NUT chairman restated that even though the West African Examinations council has fixed 3rd August and 5th September as the date for the commencement and rounding up of the 2020 WASSCE the schools in the state may not resume until the state is certified fit by the NCDC to reopen schools.

In another development it seems not yet Uhuru with the proposed schools reopening date in Nigeria as the Federal Government has again reordered its earlier decision on the resumption

date.

In the same vein there are indications that in consonance with dissenting opinions on a possible resumption date as earlier expressed by some state Governments and stakeholders in the Education sector, the Federal Government may no longer be willing to permit Nigeria’s participation in the regional examinations this year following the resurgence of more cases of the novel Covid-19 pandemic.

The Tide learnt that the Federal Ministry of Education has expressed concerns on the safety of Nigerian students when schools are resumed amidst rising number of the Coronavirus infections in the country.

You would be recalled that penultimate week the Federal Government announced August 3rd as the resumption date of schools in Nigeria, while the West African Examinations council,WAEC also followed suit by giving 3rd  August through 5th September as dates for kick-starting and ending up of this year’s WASSCE.

Inset:comrade Walton Liverpool, PS Bayelsa state Ministry of Education.

By Ariwera Ibibo-Howells, Yenagoa.

Acting Chairman, Bayelsa state Local Government service commission, Barr Uroh Omiekumo Kiani says the 8 local government status of the state remains a ploy by the Nigerian Government to continue marginalising the people of the state in Governance.

Kiani stated this on Tuesday while fielding questions on prospects and challenges of the state local Government service commission with The Tide in Yenagoa.

The legal practitioner and administrator stressed the need for the recognition of the existing 32 rural development authorities,RDAs in the state and creation of more Local governments, saying that when this is done the state would also be receiving more funding from the Federal Government, as according to him outside the usual 13% derivation formular that is employed by the Federal Government in sharing revenue between the states,Federal and Local governments in the nation, the number of Local Governments in a state is also used as a parameter to make allocations.

He added that over the years efforts by the state’s national Assembly caucus and other sympathisers to effect changes in the number of Local governments in the state has proved

abortive due to parochialism in the nation’s politics.

“Given the opportunity I’ll move for the recognition of the existing 32 RDAs in the state as local governments and ask for the creation of more”, he said.

“But the Nigeria system,our constitution has made it very difficult,because all the existing 774 LGAs in the country are listed in the constitution. So to create more you’ll have to amend that provision of the constitution”,he added.

“Our National Assembly members over the years have been helpless,that is because in Nigeria given the chance every state would want to ask for more just because Bayelsa is asking to be treated well in the number if recognised LGAs”, he restated.

The Local government service commission boss who also spoke on the welfare of staff in the various RDAs and councils ares of the state noted that the last time recruitment exercise was done in the Local Government system in the state was in 2012,emphasizing that the recruitment of staff for the LGAs by the commission is restricted to grade levels 7 and above,just as he pointed out that the junior staff recruitment committee of the unified Local

governments.

Inset: Barr.Uroh Omiekumo Kiani,Ag.Chairman Bayelsa state LG service commission.

By Ariwera Ibibo-Howells, Yenagoa.