Covid-19: We're Prepared For Resumption - FUNAAB VC

Michael-Azeez Ogunsiji 

ABEOKUTA - The Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), Prof. Kolawole Salako has disclosed that, the institution was ready to resume for 2019/2020 academic session in line with the covid-19 protocol.

This was as the Vice Chancellor described as political, mischievous, baseless and unfounded the university's ASUU chairman, Dr. Adebayo Oni's claim in the media that the school is not prepared resume academic activities.

Speaking at a press conference on Monday, Prof. Salako said there was much to it than meet the eyes, dismissing it as a politically-motivated statement intended to satisfy selfish curiousity.

Salako maintained that the university was ready to resume academic activities, saying that measures had been put in place, including COVID-19 protocols as stipulated by the Federal Government.

He said it was mischievous and political for any lecturer to go to the media to say that the university was not ready for academic activities.

Salako noted that the school had undergone fumigation more than 10 times since March 2020, just as there had been massive infrastructural rehabilitation.

He added that the management had been producing its own hand sanitisers, as well as procuring hand-washing basins and soaps needed to keep the students and members of staff safe from contracting the virus.

The vice-chancellor also said the university would be running what he described as “hybrid” teaching, a mix of physical and virtual learning, while no fewer than 150 solar panels had been installed in some of the buildings, to provide alternative sources of electricity and facilitate the planned hybrid system of learning delivery.

“The virtual learning will take care of large classes, like the part one students, but for fewer classes, we have large halls to accommodate the students”.

The University's Management reaction came even as the Leadership of the students Union passed a vote of confidence on the Vice Chancellor and the readiness of the university to resume virtually and physically.

To validate the management's position, Prof. Salako took the journalists on tour of some newly completed and rehabilitated buildings that have been equipped with latest technological gadgets to aid virtual teaching and learning.

The Vice Chancellor added that the buildings also have equipped laboratories, auditoriums, lecture theaters, classrooms with each being 50-seated, 100-seated, 200-seated capacity as well as newly constructed and renovated administrative offices and hostels.

According to Prof. Salako, "the university is ready to receive students both online and physically and we are going to ensure that all the students adhere to covid-19 protocols.

"One things that this administration is known for is that we are not just building, we are equipping. We are committed and responsible to ensuring that things work in the school despite the threat posed by Covid-19".

He lamented that students are tired of staying at home, promising that the management would do everything possible to cover the academic gap caused by the closure of the campus.