The Director, Institute for Human Resources Development (INHURD), Prof. Oluwasanmi Arigbede has revealed that the Institute is fully prepared for resumption after the wave of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and the subsequent lifting of lockdown across the country. According to Prof. Arigbede, all hostels in INHURD had been fully fumigated, as provisions for necessary preventive measures against COVID-19, as directed by the government, had been put in place. The Director noted further that in order to keep the school busy, “INHURD has never stopped working”. Noting that throughout the lockdown, tutors had been held online by teaching the Joint Universities Preliminary Examinations Board (JUPEB) students while the Institute had since resumed in September for the completion of the 2019/2020 Academic Session.
“Because of the social distancing policy of the government, we cannot bring in all our students at once. Thus, we brought in the ‘A’ level (JUPEB) students on the 7th of September. They have finished their examinations and left. We brought in pre-degree students now and they will just spend some time for revision before the second semester examination and leave by 16th of October. Then, we shall commence the 2020/2021 Academic Session on Monday, 2nd November, 2020”, he added. On the effects of COVID-19 on the Institute, Prof. Arigbede noted that the pandemic had negative effect on the amount the Institute was able to generate. “By now, we were supposed to be in the middle of the first semester for the 2020/2021 Academic Session, but we are just struggling to round up the 2019/2020 session”, he stated.
He identified other challenges facing the Institute to include government policies which has affected its programmes, with the most important one being the cancellation of management courses offered in FUNAAB by the National Universities Commission (NUC). He stressed that most Centers like INHURD always had more students in the humanities, management and basic medical sciences, which are presently not being offered in FUNAAB. The Director said that the Institute’s mandate was to attract as many prospective candidates as possible by justifying the confidence reposed in INHURD by the University.
