This commission is of the view that information about the total number of students between the ages of 5 and 16 currently enrolled in school nationwide, percentage of students who have been forced to drop out of school due to inaccessibility to internet services and devices, measures taken by the federal government to build the digital divide for school going children to ensure their education is not disrupted, measures taken by the federal government to ensure that school age children continue to receive education during the Covid-19 pandemic and measures taken by federal government to ensure that public school teachers receive the requisite training in order to be able to teach effectively during the pandemic is public information under the Right of Access to Information Act 2017 and should have been provided to the Appellant upon his request.
This commission takes strong exception to the fact that the Respondent has failed to respond to the duly sent notices of this commission. If directions of the commission in this Order are not followed, it will be left with no option but to invoke Section 20 (f) of the Right of Access to Information Act 2017.