ABIODUN Ogunyemi, President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) says government must go back to the drawing board and put necessary measures in place before considering re-opening of schools.

Speaking on Wednesday during Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily program, Ogunyemi said Federal Government has not put in place safety measures to curtail the spread of COVID-19 in schools, urging that preventive measures should be first activated with the support of stakeholders.

“You don’t put something on nothing, and that is what we have been saying. The basis for reopening schools is not there yet,” he said.

The government must go back to the drawing board. They have to put what they have to put in place before they open our schools.”

“The ministry (Federal), state ministries, have responsibilities; state education boards have responsibilities, local education boards have responsibilities; the thing has to trickle down,” he added

The ASUU president also emphasised the need to decongest classrooms in all public schools due to overpopulation,   lamenting that all levels in public schools are congested.

He wondered how students would be able to observe social distancing in such overpopulated classrooms.

It would be recalled that Boss Mustapha, the Secretary General of the Federation (SGF) and Chairman of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, had on Monday disclosed that schools were going to be reopened for graduating students as the country moves on in its gradual ease of lockdown imposed to curb the spread of COVID-19.

Meanwhile, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of the World Health Organisation, (WHO) has urged for caution about letting down guards against COVID-19 warning that the pandemic is far from being over.