Minister of State for Education, Emeka Nwajiuba, disclosed this on Channels Television while responding to why university lecturers have not called off their industrial action.

He said there is nothing stopping the lecturers from returning to classrooms.

Nwajiuba explained that the government has done what it needs to do, adding that the lingering strike should be blamed on the lecturers.

“The lecturers can be back in the classroom tomorrow if they say they want to go back. There is nothing withholding the lecturers from entering the classroom tomorrow.

“Everything that the government needs to do is done. If you want your salaries, get on the platform and collect your salaries,” the minister said.

The protracted industrial action by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, was due to the body’s refusal to enroll on the federal government’s payment platform, Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).

ASUU had severally insisted that it won’t enrol on the IPPIS system.

The Minister of State for Education, Emeka Nwajiuba, made this known during the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 briefing on Thursday in Abuja.

Nwajiuba said sitting for the GCE may become the only option for Nigerian students if the country cannot convince WAEC to shift its examinations for any reason at all.

The Minister however noted that should Nigeria be able to meet up with the WAEC timetable, there was already a negotiated timeline to move local language subjects such as Ibo, Yoruba and Hausa behind to allow all participating countries the needed time to write the general subjects at the same time.

He also said the ministry will be meeting with relevant stakeholders on July 30 to assess preparations for the safe reopening of schools.

According to the Minister: “WAEC unfortunately, is unable to wholesomely move the exams but we have also worked out a negotiated timeline with WAEC on what we call peculiar Nigerian subjects which in the language of WAEC are subjects that are only held in Nigeria such as Ibo , Hausa and Yoruba.

“The Ghanaians will take examinations peculiar to them. But they are all in the first part of the time table so we will work out a domestication module that will take our peculiar subjects behind after we have done generals.

“This will buy us the time we need for all of us to be at par with the rest of West Africa and operating at the same time because the unanimity with which WAEC has always worked is still very important to us.

“Nigeria is not moving away from it, the option would have been to go to November to take the GCE external exams. Nigeria is carefully studying that if in the event everything fails, we may go to that way.”

The Minister of State for Education, Emeka Nwajiuba, made this known on July 17.

According to a statement released by the Ministry of Education’s Director of Information, Ben Goong, the Minister said schools are expected to undertake self-assessment and send feedback to State Ministries of Education, not later than July 29. The Minister added that an official date for safe reopening of schools will be announced once these guidelines have been put in place.

The statement said “Consultations with relevant stakeholders will be held to review the situation and decide on a specific date for reopening or otherwise Furthermore, the Minister said, having taken the painful but necessary decision not to reopen schools without necessary preparations to ensure the safety of students and teachers, the Federal Ministry of Education has continued consultations with stakeholders, and a mechanism to assess and monitor compliance shall be put in place,”

Speaking on a Channels Television programme on Wednesday evening, the Minister assured parents and teachers that the Federal Government has instituted adequate measures to ensure the safe resumption of schools for exiting pupils.

He said “We understand the limitations of Nigerians. Most people cannot afford laptops and devices and we know that not all our children have the same access. And if there are people who do have this access and who feel confident that their children are ready for these exams, nobody is compelling anybody to go to any school. What we have done is to make the facilities of our schools available. Each school should have places to wash hands, check the temperature of the children constantly, have sanitizer. Private schools should be able to provide these and state governments too. The Federal Government owns just about 104 unity colleges. So, it’s really not a compulsion; we are just making the facilities available for the purpose of taking the exams for those who want to take the exams. But it will not be a responsible act by the government to then say because there are some people who may not want to take the exams, that we should not make the facilities available for those who may want because life is a continuous journey of choices and our children have been at home. We have 1.5 million children registered for WAEC this year and we know that internet penetration for this group is less than 300,000. So, it will be the height of injustice not to make these facilities available for others to learn. We know that children at the moment are at home; they mingle with their parents, with friends or with those who go to the market and come back or those who go to the mosques or churches. They do all kinds of activities. Those that are well off could afford to keep their children watching TV but some are using their children as hawkers – we are losing people we are trying to bring back to school and if do not do anything about this, we will just lose all the children altogether and you will not be able to return them back to school eventually.”

According to the Minister, teachers and students will have to be able to have access to roads to travel back to their schools for academic activities to resume. He also said that schools will not be allowed to open unless medical experts have given their nod for the resumption of academic activities.

In his words “You heard about neighbouring countries that reopened and shut down again. You have heard about numbers spiking as a result of reopening the schools. Of all the things I would like to do, I wouldn’t want to experiment with your children. What we are planning is to actually bring in those exit years first as soon as those who are in charge of the blockade lift it because there is no way we can open our schools if teachers cannot come. So, we are looking at somewhere after when this interstate lockdown is lifted because we need to have that kind of openness for even the children to move”.

Minister of State for Education, Emeka Nwajiuba, revealed this while responding to a question during the daily briefing by the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 pandemic.

InsideOjodu recalls that President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday announced a gradual lockdown relaxation in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, Lagos and Ogun States.

Nwajiuba said, “The president actually addressed the issue of the opening of the economy gradually. Until that is done, we can’t foresee or immediately tell you when all the schools will be reopened.

“It will not be proper for us to simply give you a date. It has to be in tandem with these opening terms. We don’t want to put our children at risk. None of these schools can function on their own without the society.”

The Minister also explained that the West African Examinations Council has not cancelled examination as speculated.

According to him, students will sit for their exams when the government was sure to have taken good care of the pupils.

He noted that the exams was postponed indefinitely so that a definite date would be picked.