Seven students of Government Girls Secondary School, Doma, Gombe State, who are writing the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), have tested positive for COVID-19.
The students had resumed on August 4, 2020, following the Federal Government’s directive that graduating classes should return to school to write their examinations.
Gombe State Commissioner for Education, Habu Dahiru, who disclosed the development on Wednesday, said the state government carried out 1,100 tests on final-year students following their resumption.
The commissioner said the students who tested positive for COVID-19 would be moved to an isolation centre.
Dahiru said, “We gave preference to students returning from epicentre states like Kaduna, Kano, Yobe and Lagos; those places that have registered high cases of COVID-19. So far, we have tested 1,100 cases, out of which the first case from Government Science Secondary School.
“He was immediately evacuated and isolated. He has written his first paper, Mathematics, and he is writing Agricultural Science today. It will be demoralising for him if we don’t allow him to write his exams.
“The government of Gombe State under the leadership of governor Inuwa Yahaya said all students found to be positive for the virus should be taken care of.
“We have identified another set of students. We only got the results yesterday. Seven of them have been found to test positive for the virus. We are making arrangements to evacuate them to the isolation centre.”
He added that, despite testing positive for COVID-19, the students will not miss their examinations.
“We will not allow them to miss their papers because they tested positive.
“The testing became easier because the governor approved N120 million to set up a molecular laboratory. The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control has certified it and we have started testing in earnest.
“The samples taken from schools were tested here in Gombe at the molecular lab and results were shared.
“We went to the school to identify the seven students and kept them aside.”
