Low Turnout as Students Resume School in Benue

FINAL year pupils of both primary and secondary schools in Benue State resumed on Tuesday in preparation for their final examinations. However, pupils in some schools in Makurdi, the state capital, had yet to resume fully.

Some of the schools are Mt. St. Gabriel’s Secondary School, Government Secondary School, Government Model School, Arabic School and Holy Ghost School, LGEA Primary School, all in Makurdi.

The Principal of Mt. St. Gabriel Secondary School, Makurdi (a missionary school), Rev. Fr. John Asen, said out of the 300 students expected, less than 100 had resumed on Tuesday.

“We have fumigated the schools and provided hand sanitisers and hand washing equipment in line with the COVID-19 protocol. Our students are being checked in at the gate. Our level of compliance is about 99 per cent.

“We are expecting almost 300 students back, but the number of students that came back today is not yet up to a hundred. They got the notice just last week and you know this is boarding school.”

The state government, in ordering the schools reopening, had put in place some stringent measures for the resuming students based on COVID-19 protocols put in placed by the NCDC to curtail the spread of the pandemic. Students resumed academic activities in compliance with the COVID-19 protocols after four months shutdown.