COVID-19: Suspend NYSC camps for 2 years - Osinbajo committee tells FG
- The Economic Sustainability Committee has recommended that the government suspend NYSC orientation camp
- The committee led by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo called on the federal government to consider suspending the exercise for 2 years
- Recall that the scheme's management shut down all the orientation camp nationwide as a preventive measure to curb the spread of coronavirus
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Following the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic that is ravaging Nigeria, the federal government has been urged to consider suspending for two years the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) orientation camp exercise.
The appeal was made by the Economic Sustainability Committee (ESC) led by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo in its report presented to Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari last week.
According to TheCable, the Osinbajo-led committee recommended that the government consider suspending the 3-week orientation exercise held at camps across the country for at least 24 months while allowing corps members to be deployed to various primary assignments.
The committee went on to note that the focus at the moment is how to address the disruptions COVID-19 has caused to the education sector and ensuring social distancing measures at all levels.
Source: UGC
“Practical steps will be taken to minimise disruption to learning, utilising technology as appropriate. Specifically, virtual learning will be implemented (either online or through broadcast), virtual convocation ceremonies or issuance of certificates (with postponed ceremonies) should be implemented to continue educational progression," the report said.
Emerging report also indicated that the NYSC submitted a proposal for reopening its camps nationwide after it was shut following the outbreak of coronavirus in Nigeria.
Recall that as a preventive measure against the dreaded coronavirus, the scheme ordered that all orientation camps across Nigeria be shut.
The directive was issued from the NYSC headquarters in Abuja early Wednesday, March 18. Those in the camps currently are the 2020 Batch A Stream 1, across 37 centres in the country.
“Corps members shall be posted to commence their primary assignments forthwith, while they shall be invited back to the orientation camps when the situation improves, just like it happened a few years ago when the nation was confronted by the Ebola virus threat."
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Earlier, Legit.ng reported that NYSC said it would reopen its orientation camp when the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 permits it to do so.
The director-general of the NYSC, Brigadier General Shuaibu Ibrahim, made the statement when he visited the director-general of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Chikwe Ihekweazu in Abuja.
Ibrahim disclosed that the scheme is putting strategies in place to enable safe and efficient conduct of its operations ahead of the further lifting of restrictions on socio-economic activities in the country.
He said the suspended 2020 Batch ‘A’ Stream One orientation course would be completed when the NYSC receives the go-ahead from the COVID-19 task force.
UPDATE:
Laolu Akande, the media aide to Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, says his principal did not call for the suspension of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) contrary to media reports.
“It's the paramilitary orientation camping that is being considered to be suspended for at least 24 months, not deployment to a primary assignment,” he wrote in a tweet to clarify the true position of things.
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Source: Legit.ng
