Hello Nairaland! I came across this article some moments ago and I think it is insightful. Most schools just closed for the session and it is time for parents to start checking their children's school result.


Dear Sir,

I came across one of your articles and decided to seek your advice. Last weekend, I discovered that my 6 years old boy in year 2, xxxxx (name of school withheld by poster) cannot read well or spell some simple two to three letter words correctly. I have been very busy; I don’t have time to monitor his school work. I am a single mother and very busy, I try as much as I can to put him in such an expensive school so that they can help me give him the best. His school result shows that he is doing well with the A’s and A+ in his school reports. In the just concluded term, he had only a B, others were distinctions. Now I am confused, should I change the school or report to the school management? Please I need your professional advice as I work towards preparing him for the next term.

Mrs xxxxxx (name withheld by poster)




Dear Madam,
As you must have observed in my previous articles, I will first address your case generally because I feel a lot of parents may have similar experience (but with certain peculiarities), then I will proceed to proffer a specific solution to your concern. Kindly take your time to read this to the end, but if you are very busy right now, you can read the 7th reason now and read the rest later.

Best regards


IS YOUR CHILD A LOCAL CHAMPION AT SCHOOL?

1. “I pay so much money or relatively expensive school fees; so why should my child fail?” Many school owners know you would definitely ask this question so they can go extra mile to make you achieve your main goal either by hook or by crook. They will give you what you like to see, what is presentable and what will make you feel fulfilled as a parent.

2. Most schools today are strictly business ventures; so, they can give you anything to cajole you to keep paying. I know many parents who have withdrawn their children from some private schools because of poor academic reports. The management of these schools feel that they have learnt from their past mistakes by being sincere to you that your child failed so they give you what you want. Poor academic performance means bad business to many schools because as a business venture, it makes them lose some paying customers. This explains why your child keeps getting the A+ and distinctions.

3. Your child may be good in other things and the school management may feel he/she could be compensated with high grades. This is not only peculiar to the expensive private schools; some cheap schools and government owned schools also experience this. Education is not all about Mathematics, English and Sciences, your child may be good in sports and other recreational activities, so the school may benefit from him/her by representing the school in both national and international competitions. In this case, the school may feel compelled to compensate your child with good grades so as to make you feel proud of him/her and also project his/her image as an ultimate champion serving as the school ambassador. If your child falls into this category, please do not get it twisted; your child’s academic report is different from his social report, you need to know what exactly he or she is good at so as to concentrate on his/her strengths and work on his/her weaknesses.

4. Is your child’s school teacher his/her home lesson teacher? If your answer to this sensitive question in the Nigerian education sector is “yes”, it means you are still getting it wrong. I need to be very assertive here because I am neutral (I do not own a school and I am not currently a teacher in any school, either public or private). Many private schools see private lesson teachers as their competitors, so instead of allowing their students to go home after school, they get them to stay back for school lesson till evening. In most of these schools, school lesson is made compulsory for all students. The problem with this school lesson is that most of these teachers keep repeating topics taught in school in the lesson and some of the lazy teachers use it as an opportunity to cover up for some topics that they could not cover during the normal school period. Also, in public schools, teachers choose to augment their salary with private lessons which would require parents to pay certain fee directly to the teacher either monthly or termly. In this case, since the school or the government is not involved in this private arrangement, most teachers go as far as using their influence to convince their colleagues to upgrade the academic result of the students who do private lessons with them. I can continue to expatiate more on this point but I will save it for a more elaborate write-up.

5. The school management knows that you are rich, busy, careless, unconcerned or it may just be that your child gets sponsorship from someone else who doesn’t bother about the quality of education in the school as long as your child is enrolled in the school. So, whenever you discover that your child doesn’t deserve what he/she gets in the academic performance report from the school, you need to know that you are getting it all wrong.

6. You are nice to your child’s teachers or the school management. You don’t need to build a skyscraper for them to be nice, it all depends on the school and the caliber of teachers working there. The gifts you give consciously or unconsciously, your frequent calls with subsequent top ups for recharge cards so that they can call you when necessary, your remarkable contribution at the last Inert-House-Sports or PTA meeting or your celebrity status may speak for you. Please, do not let it get into your head, you really need to know your child’s actual academic status.

7. External examination results are always there to show you your child's actual academic performance, do not wait till then because it may be too late. "It is easier to build boys than to mend men", the best time to save your child is now.


Solution:

Dear Madam, your child needs an independent and unbiased academic assessment that will show his strengths and weaknesses in each topic/subject. Some organizations in Nigeria are already conducting this assessment. Some charge for the service while some few ones (Think First Educational Consult via www.thinkfirstturous.com.ng or Won-on-One-Consult via 08178241759) offer the service for free. Don’t raise a local champion, the school result is not enough to know your child’s worth academically.
Best regards.



Akinyele Kolade is an education consultant and writer. Presently, he works as a researcher at Won-on-One Consult. You can reach him via wonononeconsult@gmail.com. Remember, your child doesn't care to know how much you know but how much you care about him/her. If you don't care, who will?

http://edutalkonline..com/2019/08/is-your-child-local-champion-at-school.html

So true. Recently we have discouraged the use of position on report card. Just compare your Ch last term work to this term work.

erifeoluwasimi:
So true. Recently we have discouraged the use of position on report card. Just compare your Ch last term work to this term work.

I think the issue of position on report card is also very important because all students in a class can't pass with the same position.

Informative.

Good piece. I took my time to read from top to bottom.

My daughter came home with a poor result in Mathematics. I know he is still struggling with some topics so I want to believe the result is unbiased. Do you think I can still call for assessment?

@Moderator Let this fly to front page before I declare #RevolutionNow in Nairaland.

Right time.

This is front page worthy. Many parents need to learn from this. Examination in most cases may not be the true test of knowledge.

MamaFryo:
This is front page worthy. Many parents need to learn from this. Examination in most cases may not be the true test of knowledge.

I once worked in a top private school during my PG, and I can tell you authoritatively that the results children bring home have been seriously doctored and is never a reflection of their abilities.

It was so bad that after exams or midterm tests, pupils with poor performance are called for 'special coaching' wgere they basically rewrite tge wrong answers, wrong spellings are corrected by teachers before marking and all sorts of nonsense that end up concealing the true state of your child's academics performance.

A clear problem with a not so clear way of solution of simply assessing them again independently. Your ward fails and then what next? On to the next school? I think all schools do this in one way or the other to a degree. It's not all bad, certain kids need a little more push than others to be and stay motivated. It can be hard to pick up a book when you know the outcome is that you will carry the class. If parents keep up with this, schools will eventually pass up class 2 material for class 3 and so on. On the surface the material is easy enough for all to absorb without much 'coaching' and parents won't be able to tell what happened but the downsides are worse.

I think there are two solutions.
1. Don't give birth if you can't look after them
2. A complete overhaul of the educational system so that we no longer have to 'rank' kids against each other but against themselves.

Dignity5:
A clear problem with a not so clear way of solution of simply assessing them again independently. Your ward fails and then what next? On to the next school? I think all schools do this in one way or the other to a degree. It's not all bad, certain kids need a little more push than others to be and stay motivated. It can be hard to pick up a book when you know the outcome is that you will carry the class. If parents keep up with this, schools will eventually pass up class 2 material for class 3 and so on. On the surface the material is easy enough for all to absorb without much 'coaching' and parents won't be able to tell what happened but the downsides are worse.

I think there are two solutions.
1. Don't give birth if you can't look after them
2. A complete overhaul of the educational system so that we no longer have to 'rank' kids against each other but against themselves.

Good points. Simple and practical. You deserve a cup of coffee for this