Recruit Licensed Environment Health Officers, Minister Urges Schools

Recruit Licensed Environment Health Officers, Minister Urges Schools

If the safety, health and wellbeing of both learners and care givers must be maintained, then school proprietors must ensure that they engage the services of licensed Environmental Health Officers (EHOs), says Dr. Mohammad Mahmood Abubakar.

Dr. Abubakar, Minister of Environment, made this known while speaking at a press briefing on the ‘safe measures to be adopted against COVID-19 after schools are reopened.’

According to him, the EHOs will be responsible for water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) programmes and activities in the schools, including regular and routine sanitary inspection of premises.

Where the schools individually do not have financial capacity, he said, a cluster of three or more schools could engage one on retainership.

“Furthermore, in accordance with the guidelines, EHOs in the Federal and State Ministries of Environment, as well as those in the Local Government Area (LGA) Environmental Health Departments shall be part of the joint assessment teams for safe reopening of schools and learning facilities, as they are among the authorized assessors,” the Minister added.

Mahmood Abubakar, who said the Environment Ministry is also working to realize the objectives of the Federal Ministry of Education’s guidelines on safe reopening of schools and learning facilities, also disclosed that about 60,000 Environmental Health Emergency Volunteer Corp (EHEVC) will be deployed to cover schools in all the 774 LGAs, across the country.

He noted that the 60,000 EHEVCs will be working with other stakeholders at the sub national levels in accordance with the guidelines for the safe reopening of schools.