Oyo public schools remain shut, despite order to reopen

Schools in Oyo State have remained shut in spite of the
state government’s directive to reopen on Monday
(today), the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.
A NAN correspondent, who went round the Ibadan
metropolis reports that both primary and secondary schools’
gates were not opened after four weeks of closure.
Some students were seen already dressed in their school
uniforms in the morning but they could not enter the
school premises.
Some of them, who spoke with NAN, under a condition
of anonymity, said they were in schools based on the
directive by the State Government that schools should re-
open on Monday.
Both teaching and non-teaching staff were absent from the
schools visited as the gates remained shut.
NAN reports that the State Government had announced the
re-opening of public schools in the state with effect from
Monday.
This directive was contained in a statement signed by Mr
Toye Arulogun, the state’s Commissioner for
Information,Culture and Tourism.
According to Arulogun, the State Government decided to
reopen the schools with effect from Monday July 11,
excluding the 17 schools that participated in the June 6
violent demonstration.
Prominent community leaders, religious leaders as well as
traditional rulers and well meaning Nigerians, had implored
the State Government to reopen the schools.
It will be recalled that on June 6 some public school
pupils went on rampage to protest government’s proposed
public/private participatory management of schools in the
state.
The students protested the government decision, following
the allegation that their schools had been sold in the
process, which government consequently denied .
However, efforts by NAN to get the reaction of Mr
Waheed Olojede, the Secretary of the Nigeria Union of
Teachers (NUT), Oyo State chapter, failed as he could
not be contacted.