The Minister of State for Education, Mr. Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, said the Federal Government has begun to consider the full reopening schools.

The Minister who made this known during the briefing of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 in Abuja said no date has been fixed yet for full schools’ resumption and pleaded with protesting students to be patient with Federal government.

Nwajiuba, explained that the government had continued to engage stakeholders, some of whom have expressed readiness to resume fully and expressed optimism that the date for resumption was close by. He also disclosed that he and the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, met some stakeholders in tertiary education yesterday on the issue.

The minister revealed that about 78 privately-owned universities were insisting that they were ready for resumption while the response from government-owned universities was still “50-50.” He stated that after aggregating opinions, he would return to the PTF to review the situation and then go ahead to make a pronouncement as said:

“I urge our students who have actually exercised a lot of patience along with their parents … I urge you to bear with us a little bit more. The rioting needs to stop; there is nothing to riot about.

“We don’t want to bandy around dates,” he said, “We remain positive.”