COVID-19: Thousands of students in Lagos shun schools two months after resumption ― Investigations

Students in their thousands, especially in nursery and primary schools in Lagos State have not shown up in schools two months after resumption from general lockdown caused by COVID-19 pandemic.

Ladipo Samuel, a seven-year-old pupil at Oniwaya in Agege and Obina Amadi, a six-year-old pupil at Ikotun in Alimosho Local Government areas are among them to mention but a few.

This worrisome development, particularly as Nigeria is one of the countries with the highest burden of out-of-school children globally, however, cuts across both public and private schools in the state.

According to investigations by Tribune Online, students across genders and classes and from poor homes are mostly involved.

The leadership of various private school owners including the National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools (NAPPS), Association for Formidable Educational Development (AFED) and the League of Muslim School Proprietors (LEAMSP) confirmed this to our correspondent in a separate exclusive interview.

National President of NAPPS, Chief Yomi Otubela and his counterparts in charge of AFED and LEAMSP, Messrs Orji Kanu and Abdulwahid Obalakun, respectively, said the situation cut across virtually all their members’ schools.

They linked the development majorly to COVID-19 pandemic, which caused many parents to lose their sources of income and could still not recover till day nor foresee quick recovery.

Another factor, according to them, is the recent nationwide #EndSARS protests where some parents were killed and some got wounded and yet some others lost all their live investment to arson by hoodlums.

They said parents of those students, particularly in the pre and nursery sections because of delayed in resumption, categorically refused to bring their children back to school on the premise that they didn’t have school fees.

They said some parents even complained of not having money to feed their families let alone to pay school fees or buy textbooks and other needed items.

While they disclosed that they had no specific data on that for now but significant proportion, they said some students who returned might not have done so should school authorities didn’t follow them up to their homes to encourage their parents.

They said even at that, many parents only promised to bring their children back to school in January for the second term work not minding missing out completely all the lessons due for the current term.

“But the truth of the matter is that some of these students may not even come back again, especially if it takes a long time for their parents to recover financially while the public schools may not also absorb them,” NAPPS boss said. ”So, it is a serious matter as there is no immediate remedy.”

But when asked if their schools could not waive partly or fully school fees for this current term for students in this category, Mr Orji said doing so would be remote.

According to him, majority of private schools were badly hit financially just like other sectors of the economy by the pandemic and now only struggling to raise money to meet their exigencies, especially payment of workers’ salaries and rent as well as procurement of basic needs.

He explained that the prolonged disruption had compelled both proprietors and staff members to put in extra efforts and man-hours in order to significantly make up for the lost period and it would therefore be morally wrong and unacceptable to deny workers their wages.

He said there was nothing like half knowledge or half curriculum as students would need to cover syllabus to gain full knowledge expected of them at a given period.

“So, it is expected that except on scholarship, students should be able to pay their school fees so as for schools to run effectively, else there will be a problem for the system,” he stressed.

Unfortunately, private schools enrol more than 65 per cent of total students in nursery and primary schools not only in Lagos State but across the country.

Investigations have shown that many parents prefer to enrol their children in nearby private schools to their homes as many of them are within reach to public schools which is as far as one or more kilometres away.

However, it is not only private schools that have some of their students staying back at home after the pandemic. The public schools also suffered a similar fate. Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Dr Obafemi Hamzat, confirmed this and also put a figure of students in this category across public nursery and primary schools in the state to as high as over 21, 000.

The watchers of the development strongly believe that the private schools’ figure would be in multiple of the number since public schools are free.

Dr Hamzat, however, decried the development especially in the face of huge out-of- school-children in the country, saying on his Instagram handle, @lagosdeputygovernoroffice, that the state government had launched “Project Zero” to track and return such students to school.

The deputy governor explained that the state Universal Basic Education Board (LASUBEB) was handling the project in collaboration with the organised private sector to give beneficiary students uniform, sanders and shocks, bags, exercise books and writing materials free of charge.

But educationists and watchers of the situation are asking who to bail out students in private schools should government think only about students in its own schools.

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