Ebola: NYSC reduces orientation course to one day •Cancels typical exercises

Against the backdrop of the presidential pronouncement that all schools in the country should not reopen until October 13, 2014 due to the current measures to contain the Ebola Virus Disease, the directorate of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) has indicated that graduates participating in the 2014 Batch B orientation course would spend between one and two days on the course, as against the normal 21-day programme.

The NYSC management made this known in an advertorial published in a national daily on Saturday.

According to the advertorial, the abridged version of the 2014 Batch B orientation course will run between September 1 and 8, 2014.

It added that prospective corps members deployed to the affected states scheduled for the exercise are to report at the designated orientation camps reflected in their call-up letters for registration.

The affected states are Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Jigawa, Kano, Lagos, Osun and Yobe.

The NYSC stated that “in order to ensure a seamless exercise, prospective corps members are advised to report on the dates indicated in the timetable presented hereunder.

“The grouping is in accordance with the geopolitical zones where the corps members come from.

“Prospective corps members are to report within the dates indicated against their geopolitical zones for documentation, registration and collection of kit items only.

“Thereafter, they are to proceed immediately to their states of deployment or relocation as the case may be for the completion of the remaining formalities.”

The NYSC did not however indicate what the said remaining formalities would entail.

The abridged course means that the propsective corps members would miss the traditional rigorous activities on the NYSC camp, including the physical training, lectures, endurance trek, camp fire night, parade and others.

The pregnant female ones among them might also count themselves lucky, as they are not likely to undergo the requisite pregnancy test, a key requirement aimed at safeguarding the lives of females corps members throughout the duration of the three-week orientation course.

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