EBOLA UPDATE: NUT Directs Teachers Not To Resume September 22

The umbrella body of all teachers in the country, Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) has directed it members to ignore the September 22, resumption date as directed by the Federal government.
The National President of NUT, Comrade Micheal Olukoya, gave the directive while briefing journalists in Abuja on Tuesday, September 16, Vanguard reports.
According to him, teachers should only resume after they have been trained sufficiently and provided with the necessary preventive and protective gadgets in case of any possible outbreak of the Ebola Virus Disease.
He said: “But where the federal government insists on the 22nd September, 2014, date in spite of the wise counsel, the union will rather direct teachers to resume schools whenever they are sufficiently trained and their schools have been provided with the necessary preventive and protective gadgets.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the teachers have this day, resolved to resume classes in obedience to the federal government directive, in states where teachers have been trained to handle any outbreak and all the required preventive and protective gadgets such as hand gloves, sanitizers, infra-red thermometers, running water and soaps have been provided as directed by federal government of Nigeria.
“In states where the training has not been done and necessary safeguarding gadgets not provided, teachers shall continue to remain at home until their state governments respond positively or the union directs them to the contrary”.
The NUT is of the opinion that the resumption date should be delayed till October 13^th, than for schools to hurriedly resume only to be faced with attacks of EVD in the schools.
“It makes more sense to be doubly sure than to operate on shaky grounds of uncertainty and probability as it will be catastrophy of unimaginable dimension if by any act of omission we rush and open schools and end up with even up with even one primary or secondary school being infected by the virus,” he added.
It would be recalled that following the outbreak of Ebola in the country, the federal government had moved Primary and secondary schools’ resumption date to October 13, 2014. However after a review, the Federal Government moved the resumption date forward  to 22 September, 2014.
This sparked controversy as the Nigerian doctors did not agree with the resumption date but reports surfaced recently that the doctors had finally reached an agreement with the government on the Schools’ resumption date.