Skip to main content

[BREAKING]: Vice Chancellors counter ASUU, say Varsities can Resume



Vice-Chancellors of some federal and state universities in Nigeria have expressed readiness to reopen schools.

Though the Academic Staff Union of Universities had said that varsities were not ready for reopening, the VCs said they had planned to reopen their institutions as directed by the Federal Government.

One of the VCs of a federal university in the South-West told our correspondent that it was wrong for ASUU to claim that there were no guidelines for reopening varsities.

Apart from the scare arising from the second wave of COVID-19, another VC said some of them (VCs) had planned to stagger resumption.

“I think ASUU should begin to speak to facts. Inasmuch as we do not want the COVID-19 outbreak on our campuses, we had our plans. Some academic activities can resume for classes with a few populations,” one of the VCs told our correspondent on the telephone.

“LASU recently held examinations for students in compliance with COVID-19 guidelines, and it went well. What do they mean by saying there is no guideline for reopening?” another VC queried.

On his part, VC of the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Prof. Felix Salako, said the varsity would resume academic activities on January 18, in compliance with the directives of the Federal Government.

Salako maintained that the university was ready to resume academic activities, saying that measures had been put in place, including COVID-19 protocols as stipulated by the Federal Government.

He said it was mischievous and political for any lecturer to go to the media to say that the university was not ready for academic activities.

Salako noted that the school had undergone fumigation more than 10 times since March 2020, just as there had been massive infrastructural rehabilitation.

He added that the management had been producing its own hand sanitisers, as well as procuring hand-washing basins and soaps needed to keep the students and members of staff safe from contracting the virus.

The vice-chancellor also said the university would be running what he described as “hybrid” teaching, a mix of physical and virtual learning, while no fewer than 150 solar panels had been installed in some of the buildings, to provide alternative sources of electricity and facilitate the planned hybrid system of learning delivery.

“The virtual learning will take care of large classes, like the part one students, but for fewer classes, we have large halls to accommodate the students”, NAN quoted Salako as saying

The management of the University of Benin also announced that the institution would resume on January 30.

Also, the Senate of Bayero University Kano, on Monday, approved the commencement of a new academic session on January 18, 2021, while the second semester would commence on May 3, 2021.

The PUNCH Newspaper gathered that the Senate of Ekiti State University had also announced that the institution would resume online academic activities from January 18

Deputy Director, Corporate Communications and Protocol of the Federal University of Technology, Akure , Mr Adegbenro Adebayo, said academic activities will resume on January 18 for its students.

The Public Relations Officer of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Biodun Olarewaju, said the Senate of the institution would meet on January 19 to decide when its students would resume.

Subject to the decision of the Senate, the spokesperson said OAU would put in place all necessary arrangements in compliance with COVID-19 protocols to ensure safety in the university environment

The Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, said on Monday that FG would review the January 18 earlier date fixed for resumption of schools across Nigeria.

It attributed the decision to the second wave of COVID-19 currently ravaging the country.

Adamu said, “It (January 18 date of school reopening) is not sacrosanct. When we decided on that date it was just a target towards what we were working on. Of course, we are keeping it in view and looking at what is happening in society and then it is supposed to be subject to constant review.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

ASUU to FG: Varsities will be Shut Down Again Over Non-payment of Salaries

 The Academic Staff Union of Universities has threatened to resume its suspended strike over non-payment of salaries and alleged victimisation of members. The chairman, University of Ibadan branch of ASUU, Prof. Ayo Akinwole, in a statement on Sunday asked Nigerians to blame the Federal Government if universities are shut down again. Akinwole decried that despite agreeing to ASUU’s condition before the strike was suspended on December 24, 2020, many lecturers are still being owed salaries of between two and 10 months ASUU had called off its nine-month strike after the FG agreed to its conditions. However, within two weeks of the conditional suspension of the nine-month strike embarked upon by ASUU, the Federal Government reportedly flouted the agreements. It was learnt that as of December 31, 2020, the Federal Government had failed to fulfil three agreements reached with the union. Among the agreements, FG failed to fulfil was the payment of the lecturers six months salaries, inclu...
Post a Comment
Read more

Exam Malpractice: WAEC gets tough, cancels Results, bars Candidates from Future Exams

West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has cancelled the entire results of some candidates who sat its 2019 private series and 2020 school-based West African Senior School Certificate Examinations (WASSCEs) and also barred them from sitting for its future examinations for a certain number of years. The examination body also banned some schools for life or some years from presenting candidates for its future exams even as it is also planned to formally report all exam officials including supervisors and invigilators with proven cases of malpractice against them during the various exams to their appropriate authorities for sanction. Head of Public Affairs of WAEC, Nigeria, Mr Demianus Ojijeogwu, made this known in a statement, on Monday, without giving statistics nor names of individuals and institutions involved recalls that a total of 215,149 (representing 13. 98 per cent) of 1, 538,445 candidates, who sat the 2020 school-based WASSCE were involved in malpractice according to WAEC’s ...
Post a Comment
Read more

ASUU Strike: Honourary Doctorate Recipient pleads for ASUU’s ceasefire

 An honourary doctorate degree recipient from Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu-Alike, AE-FUNAI, Ebonyi state, Dr. Anayo Onwuegbu has appealed to lecturers who are members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, to sheathe their sword and resume academic activities for the sake of security of the country Onwuegbu said that for the young population of Nigeria to be out of school for nine months posed serious security threat to the country, adding that the parties at the receiving end in the impasse were every Nigerian He said that he  had the opportunity of listening to both sides of the argument between the federal government and ASUU and came to a conclusion that ASUU should succumb to their pleas of Nigerians and resume academic activities in the universities for sake of not deteriorating an already bad security situation in Nigeria Onwuegbu made the appeal shortly after his conferment of Doctor of Business Administration (Honoris Causa) at 5th special convoc...
Post a Comment
Read more