As Nigeria joined the rest of the world to mark this year’s International Literacy Day, a university lecturer, Dr Mina Ogbanga, has said that COVID-19 preventive measures should be made compulsory in all schools throughout the country.
The International Literacy Day is celebrated on the 8th of September every year.
Speaking in an interview with The Tide in Port Harcourt, Ogbanga who is also the Country Director of Centre for Development and Support Initiatives (CEDSI) said running water with soap should be placed at every entry and exit points of all schools, while trained personnel should be deployed to schools to handle thermometers for temperature checks.
She described the Coronavirus pandemic as a big setback for the educational sector, adding that the focus should now be a post COVID-19 recovery.
According to the educationist, over 773million adults and young people across the world lack basic literacy skills while 717 million are out of school as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ogbanga said even the introduction of virtual learning has not been too successful as most schools especially in the rural areas have no access to virtual learning materials.
The educationist who decried the over crowdedness in most Nigerian public schools urged the building of more classrooms blocks in the country.
She said that her organisation, Centre for Development and Support Initiatives (CEDSI) has embarked on awareness creation and training of personnel during the COVID-19 period, while educational safety materials such as hand sanitisers, virtual learnig materials, amongst others have been produced.