Queens College Students Resume Classes Amid Safety Precautions

Queens College, Yaba, Lagos state

The Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, has directed the resumption of exam classes (JSS3 & SS3) only, of students of the Queens College, Yaba, Lagos state.

They are expected to resume as day students from Monday March 20, 2017 between the hours of 7:30 am-2:30 pm.

The new directive is coming contrary to the earlier text messages sent by the school management, asking all parents to return their wards to school on March 19.

The Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Dr. OlaJide Idris, during a news conference on Thursday, had advised that the School resumption “be delayed till appropriate measures have been put in place for the safety of the students”.

Subsequently, some parents visited the school to meet with the Principal, Mrs Aduke Are, and get first hand information about the resumption as well as see what measures have been put in place to safeguard the welfare and safety of their wards.

Mrs Are, while addressing the parents, assured them that management had been following all the recommendations by the Lagos State Ministry of Health.

She said among other developments, that a water treatment plant had been certified while the 500ft deep industrial bore hole which serves as the main source of water for the entire premises has also been revamped and is functioning.

Two Students Dead

A laboratory report had shown that since the beginning of January 2017, over 1,222 students of the secondary school, have been treated at the school’s clinic for abdominal pain, fever, vomiting and diarrhea.

Also, 16 of them have been purportedly admitted to various hospitals in the country, and while two others have died, one is said to be currently in the intensive care unit of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH).

This was revealed in a statement by the Unity School Old Students’ Association (USOSA).

The association added that water sources in the school were contaminated by pathogens.

“The analysis also indicates that the boreholes that provide principal sources of water for the school are too shallow and too close in proximity to the sewage systems, to which the contamination has been traced,”

President of the association, Chidi Odinkalu, subsequently accused the school authorities of concealing the facts from the public, noting that the school has shown reckless disregard for the lives of the students.