The Parents’ Forum of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) has opposed the decision of the federal government to keep schools in session during this month’s elections.
The general secretary of the forum, Chief Ayo Ashafa disclosed this yesterday while reacting to the government’s directive that schools should be in session during elections.
He condemned the directive of the federal government to keep pupils and students in schools when it cannot adequately guarantee their safety.
According to him, government should release students and close down schools to enable the students to be in the custody of their parents like it did during the outbreak of the Ebola Virus Disease.
Chief Ashafa argued that since teachers, lecturers and school managers would also want to exercise their voting rights on election days, leaving the children unguarded in schools will constitute danger to their lives.
He further stated that since many of the students in the universities are of voting age, they should be allowed to go home and exercise their voting rights, adding that apart from exposing them to danger by keeping schools in session, the students would be disenfranchised by the federal government’s directive to keep them in school.
“Why do they want to suddenly keep them in school when most of them were registered in their respective localities and homes? Think of those who have attained the voting age of 18 years. In my opinion, the federal government, the minister of education and state commissioners of education should have a rethink on this issue and allow the children to return to their parents,” he said.
Not envisaging any negative development, he urged the Federal Government to shut down schools nationwide for a period of two weeks, contending that a post-election violence will lead to panic by parents and guardians over the safety of their wards schooling in far flung places in the country.
It will be recalled that Mallam Shekarau had on Monday, at the end of a meeting had meeting with commissioners of Education from the 36 states of the federation and the FCT, and Executive Secretaries of regulatory agencies under the Federal Ministry of Education, arrived at the decision on the grounds that a lot of time had been wasted by many schools during the Ebola crisis, which would not make government to close down schools for elections.
