The Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu has declared that the scheduled resumption of students in Nigeria’s unity colleges would go on as earlier scheduled irrespective of the postponed general elections.
He also dismissed media reports linking the midterm break earlier announced to the 2019 Elections.
EduCeleb.com recalls that the Minister of Education had on Friday 8th February declared that the 104 unity colleges would proceed on a midterm break between Friday 15th and Monday, 18th February, 2019.
He added that academic activities would resume in the secondary schools, which are federal government owned located across Nigeria on Tuesday, 19th February.
Through the spokesperson of the ministry, Ben Goong, the minister told EduCeleb.com in an interview on Monday in Abuja that the midterm break was entirely based on the schools’ academic calendar.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had in the early hours of Saturday, 16th February postponed the presidential and national assembly elections.
But he noted that its proximity to the midterm holiday was merely a coincidence.
In his words, “The schools will resume on Tuesday as earlier scheduled. This has nothing to do with the elections. So, there is no break next Friday.
“It is not that the students are voting. In a class of 1000, you can hardly find 20 children who are above 18.
“For you to have one registered to vote, if you had registered at all, it means that that child must have been 19 by now.
“The midterm break is normal. It is not because of the elections.”
He also dismissed the presupposition that schools are not safe because of the elections.
“Schools are very safe, just as our homes are safe. There is no general insecurity in the country. Everybody can attest to that.”
He said such suggestions amount to “tension raising over nothing.”
