COVID-19: Education Stakeholders Warn Against Makeshift Lessons

Some stakeholders in the education sector in Oyo State, on Monday warned against makeshift lessons allegedly embarked upon by some teachers seeking for economic gains when the government had yet to reopen schools.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that this was against the backdrop of allegations made against some teachers in some public and private schools in interior areas of Ibadan.

The stakeholders who spoke with NAN alleged that they sighted some teachers picking up pupils from their homes to their places under the guise of organising private lessons.


Mr Kayode Adeyemi, the President, National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools in Oyo State, who spoke on this development, said none of their members were engaged in such an act.

He said that their members were aware of the consequences such offence would carry if the government knew.

He noted that private school teachers were not in the habit of organising lessons for pupils, which he alleged was common among public school teachers.

Adeyemi, however, debunked allegations made against private school teachers, saying “it is a lie. Nobody is doing lessons among our private schools’’.


“What is happening is that public school teachers are normally the ones engaged in home lessons. They are the ones doing so at this time.”

“For private schools teachers, most of them work until 5 p.m., before going home before the COVID-19 came; so none of them have the time for extra lessons but public schools teachers who close early.”



“Since they close early, they go and do makeshift schools here and there,’’ he said.

Adeyemi noted that since schools were closed down, private schools were mindful of the effect on their schools.

“If they open, they know the government can close them down but it’s the public schools’ teachers that do lessons here and there and so they are the ones doing makeshift lessons.”

“There is no place where parents will drop their children so that is the problem. Parents must put their children somewhere while they are at work.”

“School is more than online teaching. It is a safety net where children are kept and the parents mind will be at rest when they are at work.”

“But because there is no school to receive them while they go to work; so they are utilising all those makeshifts to solve that problem.”

“That is the reason why the government should consider reopening schools where the children will be well monitored and their safety secured,” Adeyemi said.

In his reaction, Mr Tojuade Adedoyin, the Chairman, Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), warned perpetrators of such acts to desist so as not to hinder government’s efforts at curtailing the spread of COVID-19 in the state.

“Nobody is doing that officially, anyone doing that is on his or her own because we don’t encourage anything like that.”

“And if anyone is doing it, we want to discourage them to desist from such acts because the present situation doesn’t permit that,” Adedoyin said.

Also, Mr Ajadi Akinsola, the President, All Nigeria Confederation of Principals of Secondary Schools (ANCOPSS), said there was no public school that was opened for any lesson.

“As far as Ibadan interiors are concerned, I don’t think anything like that is happening,” Akinsola said.

When contacted on the development, the Oyo State Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Mr Olasunkanmi Olaleye, said he was not aware of any makeshift lesson done anywhere in the state.

He asked for investigative journalism to unravel the issue if at all such exists.

“If at all I heard anything about that, I will investigate it,” Olaleye said.

(Independent)