Corona virus popularly called COVID-19 is an illness caused by a novel coronavirus. This disease declared as a pandemic by the World Health Organization took the whole world by surprise as a result of its severe impact on all the sectors of the world economy resulting in the lockdown of major cities across the world.
These lockdowns as a result of COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the normal school calendar with most schools being under lock and key for more than six months. Although some schools within the metropolises tried to make use of Internet learning, But sadly pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds and most schools in the rural setting were not able to meet with the demands of the visual learning. These category of pupils remained shut out of school for the long period that their schools were shut down.
As a way of preventing the spread of the Covid-19 some simple precautionary measures were introduced by the health experts. These preventive measures include but no limited to physical/social distancing, wearing a mask, keeping rooms well ventilated, avoiding crowds, constant cleaning of hands with soap under running water and coughing into a bent elbow or tissue. Some of these protocols that were not the norms of the people were introduced by the Nigerian Center for Disease Control (NCDC) as a measure to prevent the spread of the pandemic.
However as the situation is currently relaxing, schools and other sectors of the Nigerian Economy are presently reopening. Many organizations such as the WHO and UNICEF among others are interested in assessing the level at which pupils carry out these protocols as a way of preventing the spread of the virus since the pandemic has not gotten a cure or approved vaccine.
Recently UNICEF called for Institutionalization of hand washing in all the primary schools and the UNICEF Enugu Field office donated some wash hand stands and soaps to some primary schools in three local government areas in the state. This is aimed at encouraging hand washing as a disease control protocol and to instill the culture of personal hygiene on the pupils.
In some of the primary schools in the rural communities visited, many teachers were excited to get back to work while the pupils had a mixed feeling. When BusinessDay visited Community Primary School Enugu Mmaku, a densely populated primary school in Awgu local government Area of Enugu state, one of the teachers Ms Patricia Aniojiani expressed a high degree of excitement that after a long period of lockdown they are now back to work. According to her ” we are excited because we are tired of staying at home, since the only way for now is to keep the protocols we will manage but it is not easy to cover your mouth and nose while teaching”.
However some of the pupils talked to were not as excited as the teachers because of the challenge coping with the new norm or way of life introduced in schools by NCDC.
Small Uchechukwu Okolo in primary 5 has this to say, ” it is difficult for us not to play as we use to play with our friends in school, we can’t come close and cover our nose and mouth every time which does not allow us breath well.
