By Daniel Dauda, Jos

Plateau State Governor, Simon Lalong has stated that a committee has been put in place to work out modalities that would guarantee reopening of schools come October 2020, ending.

Lalong also expressed prompt implementation of community policing in the state.

According to him “Preparatory to reopening of schools, we have set up a committee headed by the Secretary to the Government of the State as well as sub-committees on Readiness and Compliance headed by the Commissioner for Secondary Education and Chairman, SUBEB respectively.

“We have trained teachers and Principals, dis-infected schools, and established task teams towards ensuring that all laid down protocols are observed. Once we finish with exit classes, we shall gradually cascade to other classes within secondary and primary levels.

“The success we record at these levels shall determine the reopening of tertiary institutions, all in a bid to guarantee the safety of our children and avoid resurgence. We hope that if all goes well, our schools should all re-open by the end of October. “

Governor Lalong made the pronouncement during an engagement and sensitization of Local Government Chairmen and Traditional rulers, held at New Government House Little Rayfield.

He said the biggest challenge remains the lack of compliance to guidelines and protocols, denials and resistance to contact tracing and testing by some individuals. “That is why we need the support and cooperation of community and traditional rulers to overcome these challenges.”

“The pandemic has seriously impacted negatively on the economy of the State and we are taking various measures to ensure we mitigate such impact. Recently, we reviewed the approved 2020 budget and also initiated efforts to look inwards for revenue and diversification,”He revealed.

You would recall the 2020 fiscal year budget of Plateau State as earlier signed into law stands at N117billion, but later review to N122billion due to coronavirus pandemic.

The Governor assured that the state implementation of community policing is very key and top most priority in collaboration with traditional rulers to curb incessant security threats.

He also charged Local Government authorities in the state to be thinking out of the box for viable economic development in their respective domain.