By Ibukun Emiola
Ibadan – Stakeholders in education have commended the Federal Government’s decision made at the stakeholders’ consultative meeting to reopen school on Aug. 4 for exit classes.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), reports that they made this known in Ibadan on Monday in separate interviews.
Mr Kayode Adeyemi, the President, National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools, Oyo State (NAPPS), said that the decision was a welcome development given the prevailing circumstances.
Adeyemi said with the level of learning loss occasioned by the lockdown was a good decision, adding that children would not be too backward because of the holiday.
“I still remain cautious about the release though it’s from a stakeholders’ forum. I just hope that the ministry of education will not come up to say that they are not prepared again.
“This is a kind situation whereby the private sector is fully prepared to engage the students to do well in the exam and the public sector should be prepared to make the children to learn and do well in life as well.
“We will keep observing and we trust God that with the few weeks given we will be able to brush up the students to perform excellently in the exam and the year would not have been lost for the children,” Adeyemi said.
Also, Prof. Oyesoji Aremu of the Department of Guidance and Counselling, University of Ibadan, lauded the decision reached at the consultative meeting, noting that it was a good one.
“And also, very relieving to many parents, students in the certificate classes and other stakeholders.
“The decision would also enable the exit classes, especially for students in Senior Secondary III to be able to take and conclude their secondary education with a view to entering higher institutions of learning.
“The reason being that although some of them might have sat for GCE, thebresults from the examinations may not be too good enough to guarantee admission into the next level of their career in education,” he said.
Aremu said that it would be a sort of psychological comfort to the affected students who have had long delays due to COVID-19 pandemic.
“One other good thing about the outcome of the meeting is that it makes the federal and state governments to be on the same page in spite of the fact that education is concurrently legislated in Nigeria.
“This is a good development,” he noted.
Aremu said that the success or otherwise of the examinations with the exit classes, would pave way for other classes to resume studies.
Prof. Clement Kolawole, Chairman School Governing Board, Estate High School and an educationist, said this was a further confirmation of the fact that the government was in a position to modify its decision from time to time based on the facts available to it.
“This latest development shows that the government, after meeting with stakeholders, is aware that it can manage the process in a way that COVID-19 will not ground the education system completely.
“I would like to commend the government for its positive response to the development and advise that it should put measures in place to monitor what goes on.
“That will help the government to put measures in place to protect both teachers and students when schools resume.
“We have to creatively devise means of coping with the pandemic and living beyond it,” Kolawole said.
NAN recalls that the Federal Ministry of Education in a release signed by Ben Bem Goong, Director of Press and Public Relations on Monday, after the consultative meeting with stakeholders, said that exit classes would reopen on Aug. 4th.
(NAN)
