A statement signed by the Commissioner for Basic and Secondary Education, Mr. Patrick Ukah, said the temporary closure was geared towards carrying out effective regularization of their activities and ensure sanity.
Mr. Ukah, who enumerated the guidelines for the reopening of the centres to include: readiness of operators to ensure that only candidates for Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB)/IJMB examinations attend the lessons during the morning sessions between the hours of 9am-1pm Mondays to Saturdays, enrollment at the lesson centres must be based on their carrying capacities, adherence to COVID-19 protocols and the use of appropriate curriculum in teaching and learning at the centres, among others.
He emphasised that Senior School Certificate lessons should be strictly evening based between the hours of 2:30pm and 5: 30 pm except on Saturdays and Sundays, adding that the operators of the lesson centres must furnish the ministry with their full identities and profiles.
The Basic and Secondary Education Commissioner enjoined operators of the centres to visit the Inspectorate Department of the Ministry with effect from today, March 19, 2021 to collect forms and apply for recognition in order to qualify them for reopening.
According to the Basic and Secondary Education Commissioner, any lesson centre that needed to run as private school should accordingly apply to the ministry for appropriate actions and registration.
Mr. Ukah, who noted that the ministry was very much aware of the importance of the operations of the lesson centres in the overall growth of the education sector in the state, said that the enforcement of the temporary closure was not aimed at witch-hunting the operators but in response to public outcry over the activities in some of the centres.
It would be recall that on February 18th 2021, the state government ordered the immediate closure of all lesson centres across the state in order to ensure sanity in their operations.
