Edo students to attend school 3 days per week over subsidy removal

The Edo State Government has asked students to attend school three times a week to lessen the burden of the fuel subsidy removal on parents.

This was disclosed by the Chairperson of the Edo State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) Ozavize Salami, while speaking in Benin City on Friday, June 9, 2023.

Salami spoke after a meeting between the state's Head of Service, Anthony Okungbowa, and other government officials as deliberation on palliatives interventions continued at the state level.

It'd be recalled that Governor Godwin Obaseki had earlier granted workers in the state two days off every week in another mover cushion the impact of fuel subsidy removal by the Federal Government.

While announcing the plan in a statement last Tuesday, the Governor explained that he reduced the number of workdays for civil servants to three days because the government was aware of the hardship the removal of fuel subsidy has caused.

Meanwhile, the Friday meeting was to allow the government to liaise with other concerned stakeholders as the three-day working week beckons.

Salami said, “For the three-day workweek, we tried to cluster the school learning days into the first three days of the week. We did not want any gaps for administrative reasons. So, children will come on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday in all basic education schools across the state.”

She said the government has already put out modalities to meet up with the school curriculum.

“What we have done also is that we’ve extended the learning time by one hour in primary schools and two hours in junior secondary schools to ensure that the term’s curriculum is achieved,” the SUBEB boss noted.

“So, we have taken the timetable for Thursday and Friday and integrated it into the timetable for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday,” Salami added.