This announcement was made in a statement on Monday through the Commissioner for Education, Mrs Folasade Adefisayo.

She said the remaining classes in both public and private schools in the state can resume from Monday, 19th of October, 2020.

She enjoined school owners and managers of all private schools to ensure that they are cleared by the Office of Education Quality Assurance before physical resumption.

Part of the statement read, “The physical resumption which is for 2020/2021 academic session will now include pupils in pre-primary i.e, daycare, kindergarten and nursery schools.

“All public and private schools are strongly advised to put safety first by adhering to the COVID-19 safety protocols and hygiene guidelines as instructed by the State Government through the Ministry of Education.

“The Office of Education Quality Assurance will continue to monitor and evaluate schools preparedness. The necessary resumption protocols must be adhered to and cleared “satisfactory” by the OEQA.”

This follows the announcement by the Ogun state government that no boarding school pupil would be allowed to resume without a valid negative COVID-19 test certificate.

Recall that the government also directed parents to take their wards to designated places for the test between Friday, 31 July and Monday, 4 August.

Also, the state government announced that students in exit classes are expected to resume August 4 so as to prepare for their forthcoming exams

The Punch reported that parents of pupils in private secondary schools in Ogun State on Sunday kicked against the request of N25,000 COVID-19 test fee by the government.

Many of the parents, who took their demonstrations to the streets, faulted the decision of the government to ask them to pay N25,000 on each pupil before they could be allowed to resume.

The dissatisfied parents on Sunday thronged the MTR 250 bed specialist hospital, Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta, the designated place for the pupils in Abeokuta.

It was gathered that attempts by the parents to get their children tested for free failed as they were asked to pay N25,000 on each child.

According to report, many parents were locked out of the facility.

Some of the parents, who spoke with The PUNCH anonymously because of attendant consequences lamented that the payment of N25,000 for COVID-19 test shows the government cared less about its citizens.

They complained that the economic reality in the country has made it difficult to pay such an amount of money.

At the time of filing this report, the the Special Adviser to Governor Dapo Abiodun on Primary and Secondary Education, Ronke Soyombo who gave this directive through the state government could not be reached.

This is happening shortly after the Federal Government declared the reopening of schools for graduating students across the country in preparation for their various exams.

This was made known by the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu in a televised broadcast on Friday.

“Only students in transitional classes (Basic Six, JSS 3 and SS3) are permitted to resume from Monday, 3rd of August, 2020. It applies only to day schooling,” he said.

InsideOjodu reported on Monday that the Federal Government declared the reopening of schools nationwide in the next phase of the gradual easing of lockdown as part of its measures to curb further spread of COVID-19, adding that only graduating students would be allowed to resume.

This was contained in the ‘Guidelines for schools and learning facilities reopening after COVID-19 pandemic closure’, submitted to the National Assembly on Tuesday by the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu.

Each school is “required to create temporary isolation spaces and fully-equipped clinics before reopening,” the document stated.

the Minister said, “Given that COVID-19 may be with us for a while, the guidelines also highlight the urgent need to maintain and improve upon distance learning programmes.”

The statement also added that schools have mandated to “establish a referral system, including protocols and procedures to take if learners, teachers, administrators, and other education personnel become unwell while in schools”.

Apart from that, the Federal Government in the document mandated any state wishing to reopen schools to “hold adequate consultations with the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 and the parents”.