NUT, NMA Disagrees with Federal Government Over School Resumption

The Nigerian Medical Association and the Nigeria Union of   Teachers, on Tuesday, took a swipe at the  Federal Government over its  “safe reopening of schools”.

The apex organisations of medical doctors and teachers in the country told The PUNCH that the directive that graduating classes should resume was not only badly thought-out, but also could expose both teachers and pupils to the deadly coronavirus.

The NMA President, Prof Innocent Ujah, who spoke to the Punch correspondents in Jos, said that given the current low level of compliance by Nigerians with  COVID-19 safety protocols, it was risky to ask pupils to resume.

The NUT General Secretary, Mike Ene, said government was playing politics with the directive. He wondered how teachers, who had not been paid salaries in some states, would get money to buy personal protective equipment.

Also, the NUT general secretary said government was not serious with his directive. He said teachers could not resume because nobody wanted to die.

He stated, “I don’t know who is going to use his own child as a guinea pig. It is only those who are alive that can speak of keeping hope alive. How can we resume? Does anybody want to die?”

We are being taken for granted.  Teachers are parents and human beings too and their children don’t want to lose them out of carelessness. We are ready. We are not afraid to teach. But government has not shown commitment for us to go back to school. All what the government is doing is mere politics.

“When you talk of guidelines, we have passed the stage of talking without actions. I just read a text from a certain school asking my daughter who is going to take final exams to come back. They are demanding sanitisers, face marks and other consumables, thereby throwing back the burden to parents who have already been overstretched with feeding their children since they have been at home.

But government has reneged on what it should do. In a class of 60, 40 or 70 pupils, you’re talking of physical and social distancing. Can a teacher take a class from 8am to 2pm, 2pm to 5pm and 5pm to 10pm? What is the PPE that government has given to teachers?

“If a teacher is going to face many pupils in a class, and has no PPE, how will the teacher function or they expect him to use his meagre salary? I don’t know if government is aware that as of today so many states and local  governments are owing teachers.”