Education Commissioner, Salo Adikumo, on Tuesday flagged off a two-day training workshop on Ebola Virus Disease control for head teachers in the state. Adikumo had last week dismissed the demands by teachers to participate in the training, insisting that enough medical personnel from the Ministry of Health were already trained to take care of pupils and students in public schools.
The face-off between teachers and government appears to have been resolved as the Bayelsa State government commenced the training of teachers in the state on preventive measures against the dreaded Ebola Virus Disease. Schools resumed on Monday across the state.
Education Commissioner, Salo Adikumo, on Tuesday flagged off a two-day training workshop on Ebola Virus Disease control for head teachers in the state. Adikumo had last week dismissed the demands by teachers to participate in the training, insisting that enough medical personnel from the Ministry of Health were already trained to take care of pupils and students in public schools.
But the teacher's leadership instructed its members to shun working in the classrooms until the medical sensitisation programme was conducted to enlighten them.
SaharaReporters gathered that several efforts by government officials to intimidate the teachers failed until a deal was secured that teachers should resume and undergo the Ebola awareness training before academic activities will start.
The Bayelsa chapter of Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) had advised the state government to train teachers on Ebola preventive measures before classes could commence as they were initially excluded in the training exercise organised by the state Ministry of Health. NUT had argued that the teachers were critical in the efforts to prevent the dreaded disease as they were the closest to pupils and students.
Adikumo said the state government, in partnership with the Ministry of Health, has put a task force in place to curtail the disease, and applauded the federal and state governments for making it possible for teachers to undergo the training workshop.
Adikumo explained that the government of Bayelsa has already put Ebola task force under the auspices of the Ministry of Health since the outbreak of the disease in the country and urged the participants to pay keen attention to the lectures and ask questions where necessary, to clarify issues. Dr. Ebiye Soya, the resource person from the Health Ministry, said that the task is to train teachers on the preventive measures to curtail the outbreak of Ebola virus disease in schools.
According to him, the training will be followed by a written test which the participants must pass, adding that the test will certify the teachers as having been trained on handling Ebola cases. Tracing the history of the disease, he said it was first discovered in Congo in 1976 in River Ebola, which affected and killed an 18-year-old boy.
Soya added that the essence of the training is to prevent human to human transmission of Ebola should there be an outbreak in the state. The Commissioner for Health, Dr. Ayibatonye Owei, commended the teachers for their willingness to embrace the workshop without minding the distance from their rural communities. He said that both ministries were collaborating with government to ensure that the disease does not spread in the state.
Owei presented 240 handheld thermometers, washing hand basins and detergents to the Ministry of Education for distribution to the trained teachers, assuring that all participants will get the materials before the training winds up.