COVID-19: Private schools proprietors count losses, teachers lament neglect by FG

Fri, Jul 17, 2020
By publisher
6 MIN READ

Education, Featured

The teachers in private schools and the proprietors of such schools have complained of neglect by both the federal and state governments in the distribution of palliatives as well as non-payment of salaries since March this year. Despite their plight, they have, however, advised against reopening of schools before the Covid-19 curve flattens  

By Anayo Ezugwu

FOR Chijioke Amadi, a Biology teacher in one of the private secondary schools in Lagos, the last three months was the worst period of his life as a worker. Amadi said since the outbreak of Coronavirus (COVID-19) and subsequent shutdown of academic activities in March, he has not received any form of salary from his employer.

Narrating his ordeal, Amadi, who is also a father of three children, said with the increased pressure on family budgets owing to lack of income, he was forced to make a private teaching arrangement for students preparing to sit for the West African Senior School Certificate Examination, WASSCE, where he gets money to sustain his family pending when the government decides to re-open schools.

He observes that the worsening economic situation has made it difficult for private school owners, especially those with fewer students population to keep to pace with salary payment given that there are other needs contending with a meager fund that comes as income even before the advent of the coronavirus pandemic.

Amadi is not alone in this predicament, as Tonile Wahab, a mathematics teacher with a private school in Lagos pointed out that purchasing power has dwindled consistently and spending every naira has come with serious deliberations and considerations within families.

Wahab said the last three months had been challenging, adding that the uncertainty over when school will resume had even made things tougher. “With no vaccine for Covid-19 yet and the unreliable state of government, nobody knows when the government will decide to reopen schools and this is really frustrating.”

He said since the government took the issue of coronavirus pandemic serious and closed the schools, the management of the school where he works asked all teachers, cleaners, school bus drivers to stay at home. Commenting on how he has been surviving with no salary in sight, Wahab notes that he is engaged in-home lessons for students for a fee as a way of survival.

“It has not been easy engaging students, especially those whose parents are also struggling. Again, I also see going to students’ houses to teach them as part of the risk, especially with the fear of contracting COVID-19. With this private teaching, especially those preparing for WASSCE, I received weekly pay from some of the parents that I teach their children, it is through this that I am able to earn money little by little to be able to feed my family,” he said.

Apart from the plights of the teachers, private school owners in the country are also lamenting. They accused the federal government of neglect and abandonment them during and after the nationwide lockdown.

They observed that the federal government continued the closure of schools in the country without the necessary palliative to this strategic sub-sector is not only portraying the federal government as being insensitive, but could also be taken to mean lack of concern for the investors, staff and stakeholders in the private education sub-sector.

Yomi Otubela, president, National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools, Nigeria, NAPPS, in a press statement said that the federal government should not continue to shut down schools without providing the much needed palliatives to bail out private education sub-sector, which is virtually collapsing due to the COVID -19 pandemic.

He noted that with the outbreak of the pandemic and the recognition of its virulence and mode of transmission, the closure of all the educational institution was not only apt, but sensible by any government worldwide and we are not denying that fact. “The Federal Government’s action of safeguarding public health through the lockdown obviously was the right steps to curtail the spread of the virus.

“But the same Federal Government needs to be reminded of the impact the continued closure of schools could have on the mental health of individuals who earn their living from this subsector and also the private school investors whose multi-billion naira investments in the sub-sector are presently under threat of collapse.

“This is in addition to a lot of jobs indirectly provided through services rendered by school contractors, suppliers etc.  Moreover, government can take a cue from the support system of some countries like Germany, to cushion the effect of this pandemic on both their citizens and businesses,” he said.

In the same vein, the Nigeria Union of Teachers, NUT, has lamented the plight of private school teachers since the outbreak of COVID-19. Segun Raheem, National Treasurer of the union, said private school teachers deserved to be paid. He added that the NUT was making efforts to unionise them.

He said though the effort had failed in the past, the NUT would not relent. “The pandemic has really affected so many people – particularly when we talk of teachers in the private sector so many of them have not received salaries since March. We as a union are working on unionising them.  We had tried in the past, but there were threats from the proprietors.  We will not renege.  We will keep on making sure that our welfare is guaranteed.

“As a matter of fact, they are our colleagues; because we have the same licence to teach. If they don’t have the opportunity in the public schools they should be comfortable where they are in private schools.”

Speaking on Federal Government’s plans to re-open schools for terminal classes – Primary Six, JSS3 and SS3, Raheem advised the government to flatten the COVID-19 curve first before asking schools to resume. He also said many schools lacked requisite facilities to meet the laid-down protocol for resumption.

“Majority of our schools do not even have running water.  Now, if you say infrared will be used to check temperature, who holds on to the infrared? Is it the teachers who are not enough in the classrooms? How do you checkmate those students, who have been tested and those that have not been tested? Particularly in schools that have no fences or gates and the students come in from all angles.

“All these are serious matters.  When you look at this second spike, particularly the one happening in the U.S. you see that youths are the ones that are vulnerable now because of the fact that necessary precautions were not taken. Most of the states in the Southern part of the US that have reopened for business are now locking down again.  So I think we need to implore the government to see reason why we should flatten the curve first.”

– Jul. 17, 2020 @ 18:49 GMT |

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