NUT speaks on resumption of private schools for third term in Lagos

Adedoyin Adesina, the Chairman, Nigeria Union of Teachers, Lagos State Chapter, on Thursday said that online education would go a long way in ensuring that students were not redundant during the COVID-19 lockdown.

Adesina said this in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos against the backdrop of private proprietors alleged plan to resume academic activities for 2019/2020 session using online teachings.

Adesina said it would not go down well if the online teachings would be used as an alternative to the register and classrooms activities.

He said: “Online teachings cannot replace classrooms teachings, but it is an alternative to curb redundancy amongst students.

“Since the fight against the Coronavirus disease surfaced, the Lagos State Ministry of Education had done well since March to engage students with online teachings.

“We don’t know how long the COVID-19 situation will last, but we are hopeful that it would soon be over and everything would resume.”

Adesina also said there were series of ongoing meetings among the private proprietors and the Lagos State Ministry of Education on the best way to handle the situation.

According to him, parents are complaining of high fees demanded by the private schools for online teaching for the third term.

NAN reports that the Ministry of Education recently warned the private schools against using the proposed resumption of schools come April 27 as third term for the 2019/2020 calendar.

The Ministry stated that all schools in Lagos State remained closed until further notice.

The ministry said the State would continue to offer free teachings on various media, especially radio and television, adding that it would also continue to improve on the educational offering of its distance learning programmes.

According to the ministry, the state was pleased that students and pupils across private and public schools are taking advantage of the free service.

It noted that plans were underway to ensure that pupils in public schools were able to complete their term whenever the lockdown was lifted.