International Flights VS School Reopening – Which One Is More Dangerous To Open By FG? (A Must Read)

Posted by E.L.E.X on August 21 2020 under News

To start with, we cannot talk about the reopening of either of the two without first going into the little details of why it was closed in the first instance.

COVID-19 is a member of the genus Coronavirus, comprising viruses that infect animals and human beings. It was discovered in China in December 2019 and soon spread worldwide, it was declared a pandemic in March 2020 by the World Health Organisation (W.H.O), it has infected millions of people, with many recovering from it and sadly, close to a million people have died worldwide from its effect.

COVID-19 forced many Governments across the globe to shut down the economy, put a ban on public gathering and in many instances, declared a total lockdown on all social and economic activities, all in the bid to safeguard people’s lives.

Nigeria was not left out among the nation that was hit by the pandemic, the Nigeria governments, at both the Federal and States level declared a total lockdown, while few states declared just partial lockdown, restrictions of movement and curfew, depending on the peculiarities of each state, all for the same reason.

So, Governments soon eased the lockdown and allow business activities, that have been grounded to come back to life. But there are still few restrictions as International Flight remains banned and Schools remain closed.

But the Federal Government has already announced that International Flight will be resuming on the 29th of August, 2020 and affected stakeholders are already working on how schools can be safely reopened. We can, therefore, look at which is more dangerous to reopen between schools and International Flight.

Obviously, school is the most dangerous to reopen among the two because of the underlisted points:

1.POPULATION:

There are only 5 International Airports in Nigeria, and the number of people who come into the country or leave through those airports is not up to 200 thousand people on a daily basis.

Whereas Nigeria has 48 State Universities, 43 Federal Universities, scores of private universities, hundreds of Polytechnics and Colleges of Education, several other Higher Institutions of learning and thousands of secondary and primary schools. All of these institutions of learning have millions of staffs, students, and visitors on a daily basis.

The total number of travellers, workers and airports personnel available in all International Airports in Nigeria may not be more than just the total studentship population of Lagos State University (LASU) which stands at over 90,000.

Clearly enough, it’s easier to control and monitor the influx of people at Airports than schools because of the population and it also means that COVID-19, if contracted, will spread faster in school environment than Airport.

2. ADHERENCE TO PROTOCOL:

The protocol at the Airports made it mandatory for someone coming into the country or leaving the country to have a minor medical assessment, which includes but not limited to checking the temperature.

Travellers coming into the country are, in some cases, put under compulsory quarantine for 14-days, after which they will be tested for COVID-19 before being allowed to reunite with their families and outer worlds. Provision are also made for the compulsory washing of hands and usage of hand sanitizers at the airports.

All of these are difficult, if not impossible to put in place in school, for so many reasons, which includes population (as explained above), porousness, nonchalance, cost (all International Airports can afford it but some private secondary and primary schools may not) etc.

3. DOCUMENTATION:

While the number of people that leave and come into the country is documented and their details recorded, the manifest of passengers on each flight is equally taken and documented, this means that in case any of the passengers is discovered to have contracted COVID-19, all other passengers can be contacted to take necessary and immediate measures.

This is impossible in an average School in Nigeria, either Primary, Secondary or Higher Institution, while schools may have the record of its students, staffs and personnel, it’s practically impossible to know or document those who come to school on daily basis, especially as there are external and unusual comers.

4. SOCIAL DISTANCING:

One of the important precautionary measures against COVID-19 is the maintenance of social distance in all gathering at all time, this is possible in an airport to a large extent, one of the protocols of the to be opened Airports for International Flight is also the maintenance of social distance even while onboard.

This, they plan to do by inscribing a DO NOT SEAT directive on every seat in the middle of two other seats on either side. Although, this may have a resultant effect as it means the numbers of passengers on each flight will be reduced, thereby increasing travelling fees. But ultimately, it would achieve the desired goal.

This is absolutely impossible in school, many classes in several schools are always overcrowded, the students to classes space ratio does not in any way support social distancing, you often see students struggling for limited spaces, some standing when there is no available seat to catch the glimpse of the lectures. All of these and many more make social distancing impossible in schools.

Also, many private boarding schools and institutions feed their students in a rowdy manner, devoid totally of social distancing and all other COVID-19 precautionary measures. A non-spacious room in an average School hostel can be housing 6-10 students at every particular point in time, how then do you adhere to COVID-19 guidelines in such a situation?

5. PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH TRAVELLING:

Should school reopen, one thing that is certainly is interstate travelling, as we have students schooling very far away from their State?

For example, there are Osun State indigenes schooling in Kaduna and Vice-versa. Therefore, should school reopen, thousands of people will be put at risk through interstate travelling.

A student travelling from Lagos to Port-Harcourt will most likely board several vehicles, where he can contract or transfer (if already contracted) COVID-19, before getting to his school destination. Such will lead to a wider spread of COVID-19 and the community tracing of same will be extremely difficult if at all possible, to do.

All of these and many more are why it’s far safer to reopen Airports for International Flights than to reopen schools.

However, the stark reality we are faced with is, until further notice, COVID-19 is here to stay, it’s now part of the new norms we must learn, plan and prepare to live with.

When will the pandemic be conquered remains a question no one can authoritatively answer, that’s if at all it will ever be conquered. We must, therefore, find a way to reopen schools and live with it.

Some nations have already reopened schools, we can take a cue on what was put in place and how that was achieved and modify it to suit Nigeria peculiarities because ultimately, we are in for this for a very long time and we cannot afford to have a static education for the millions of Nigeria youthful population, as the adverse effects of that will be disastrous.

What do you think about this?