The Government of the State of Bayelsa has requested the cooperation of owners and owners of private schools to effectively implement their executive order on immunization.
The vice governor, Senator Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo made the call at a meeting with owners of private schools at the Golden Tulip Hotel, Onoopa, Yenagoa, Thursday.
According to him, the call had become necessary in view of the complaints of the immunization teams that border the resistance and lack of cooperation by some schools and private parents.
The vice governor explained that the executive order that makes immunization mandatory for all students in nursery and primary schools in the state “aims to promote well -being and fight against infant mortality.”
While discrediting unfounded rumors that some kind of vaccines were destined to depopulate Africa, Senator Ewhrudjakpo, however, appealed to parents and guardians that they always allow their children and rooms to be immunicated.
He pointed out that the last vaccine against polyomyelitis was invented to avoid the spread of a mutated variant of the polyomyelitis virus that had broken in about four states in the northern part of the country.
By announcing that the next round of national immunization more days would be marked on the weekend in Yenagoa, the Vice Governor directed the State Ministries of Education and Health to write to all private schools with respect to government policy on immunization.
He also ordered the two ministries and other relevant agencies to form a crack team to monitor the level of compliance in schools, emphasizing that no child should be out in any immunization campaign.
His words: “This meeting is inevitable and deep; inevitable because we are almost emergency. It is deep because it will have high reach implications.
“You are very important because, as owners and teachers, you have a primary influence on our children. In addition, as owners of private schools, about 40 percent or the students of students seeking education come to you for education.
“Among these there are two categories of people who interest us a lot. These are children of two to five years and girls under 13 years. These two sets of people are of great interest to us due to two programs that the world as a whole has developed.
“We have specifically summoned this meeting because we have discovered over the years, that some of you are resistant to immunization. They affirm and come under the appearance of saying that parents did not want their children to be immunized.
“It is also possible that he must become familiar with the state government's policy on immunization, backed by an executive order, which says that no child who does not have an immunization certificate must be admitted to any school in the State. It is a state government policy.”
In his separate comments, the President of the State, the Association of Owners of Private Schools of Nigeria (Apson), Dr. Janet Ekpefa-Abdullahi and the Secretary of State of the National Association of Private School Owners (NAPPS), ENGR. Richard Ugossough expressed concern that their great challenge comes from parents who do not want their children to immunicate while they are in school.
For his part, the deepest high school director in Yenagoa, Dr. Peter Osiki and the Pastor (Mrs.) Doris Amos de Apson, asked the government to write to the various schools through their Ministry of Education, as well as inform parents about the immunization policy through radio announcements both in English and in local dialects.
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