The Lagos State Ministry of Education has approved resumption dates for the 2020 to 2021 school session.

According to the time table, both public and private schools below the tertiary level will resume the First Term academic activities on Monday, Sept. 21, 2020.

The term is expected to run until Dec.18, 2020 while the second term will begin Jan. 4, 2021, and run until April 16, 2021.

Mrs. Abiola Seriki-Ayeni, the Director, the Office of Education Quality Assurance (OEQA) urged all public and private schools in the state to adhere strictly to the harmonised school calendar.

The director urged school management to have a ”qualitative health and safety plan” that will help protect students, teachers, and workers as schools reopen in the state.

“t is not enough to reopen but to keep staying opened since some schools all over the world had to shut down after reopening due to a spike in the pandemic.

“All schools must make efforts to comply with these requirements, not just for the improvement of the overall school operations but for safe reopening for academic activities,” she said.

She also advised schools to have flexible teaching and learning plans where students and teachers who feel sick can teach or learn from home via available online platforms.

Seriki-Ayeni said schools must strive to avoid any COVID-19 infection in their school.

She further advised that teachers, students, and visitors must wear a face mask at all times.

She said that the students must observe physical distancing, regularly wash hands with soap under running water, and maintain a high standard of personal hygiene in the school premises.

She said that schools must have an isolation/holding bay to care for medical emergencies should students come up with symptoms such as cough, headache, catarrh, difficulty in breathing, sneezing, and fever.

She also said further measures put in place by the Lagos State Government through the Office of Education Quality Assurance is for public and private schools in Lagos State to register online with the OEQA.

They are to take the School Self-risk Assessment to take the online training course to obtain reopening clearance for academic activities on the OEQA website: www.oeqalagos.com.

According to her, this will help the Office of Education Quality Assurance to determine the level of preparedness as well as guide schools on what they need to put in place for a safe reopening.

She implored school leaders to embrace new learning styles like outdoor classes, staggered attendance, platooning, or alternative attendance among others in collaboration with parents in a safe and secure environment.