http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/ArtsandCulture/x2/XFactor/Features/5663056-146/story.csp

Private school owners in Lagos, under the Association of Private Educators in Nigeria, have asked the federal government to revert its directive for all public and private schools to postpone their resumption date for the second term academic session.

The postponement, they say, is costly, and will cause serious disruption to the already beleaguered education sector in Nigeria. At a press briefing on Wednesday, heads of private schools and other experts in the private education sector unanimously agreed that the compulsory closure of the schools was harmful to the students' academic performance.

Bad timing

Femi Ogunsanya, the chairperson of the association, complained that the notice by the federal government was given at a short notice, after the schools had incurred major costs in preparation for the returning students.

"The directive was issued just days before our students were to return to their schools," she said. "Major costs had been incurred in preparation for their return. Not only will these costs be wasted, but boarding students who have arrived from abroad cannot be sent back to their home countries."

Mrs Ogunsanya said that as stakeholders in the education sector of the country, they shouldn't be ignored when policies of education are being made. She further noted that the time frames for the students' international and external examinations have been set and the school owners do not have any influence over it.

"Retrogressive directories are bound to impact on the performance of our students," she said.

Funso Adegbola, the director of Vale College, Ibadan, said that schools in Oyo State were in session under a directive given by the Oyo State government. They would, however, be closed on Friday until the federal government's stated resumption date of January 30, 2011. This, she said, was unacceptable and the association would do all it can to reverse this legally. "There are a lot of legal processes to be followed," she said. "We stand for all schools, we stand for the Nigerian child. Nigerian government, please keep the children out of politics and let them have people in politics that can advise the president properly."

Yinka Ogunde, principal consultant of Edumark Consult, stated that the students need time to readjust to their academics after the long holidays, and as such, the extension was detrimental.

"This is the shortest term that we have in terms of number of weeks that they spend in school," she said.

"By the time you take 3 or 4 weeks out of an already short term, it destabilises the kids. After a very long break, it takes them a long time again to get stabilised. The kids were actually prepared to return back to school and a few hours before you tell them they shouldn't go. It's not right. They should open the school and let everybody go back to school by Monday," she said.

While noting that the association stood for the interest of students in both public and private schools, Mrs. Ogunsanya urged President Goodluck Jonathan to consider the reversion of the resumption date for private schools since they were not involved in the registration exercise.

Defying the order

In a seeming disregard to the directive, Catholic primary and secondary schools in Lagos are in session. Students of St. Gregory's College, Obalende; Our Lady of Apostles Primary and Secondary School, Yaba; and St. Finbarr's College, Yaba, were seen receiving classes at the various schools. Bishop Duke, a Senior Secondary One student of St. Gregory's College, said that he was surprised when he heard his school would be resuming on Monday.

"My friends in other schools are at home," he said. "I just heard that the Cardinal asked us to come back to school and we've been having classes since Monday."

A staff of the college, who did not want to be named, said the directive to resume was given by the Catholic Archdiocese of Lagos and was well received by the parents and students.

So Finbarr's is not government owned?


hmmmm

Some schools in Port Harcourt have ignored the so called Federal directive and the students are going about their studies.