PRESS CONFERENCE ADDRESS BY NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF PROPRIETORS OF PRIVATE SCHOOLS (NAPPS) NATIONAL PRESIDENT, CHIEF YOMI OTUBELA, FCMA
*PRESS CONFERENCE ADDRESS BY NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF PROPRIETORS OF PRIVATE SCHOOLS (NAPPS) NATIONAL PRESIDENT, CHIEF YOMI OTUBELA, FCMA, IN RESPECT OF PHASED REOPENING OF SCHOOLS AND SUSPENSION OF 2020 PUBLIC EXAMINATIONS (WAEC, NECO, ETC) BY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT HELD ON 13TH JULY, 2020*.
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Gentlemen of the press and distinguished personalities.
The National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools (NAPPS), which serves as the umbrella body and voice of private school owners in the country, would like to APPRECIATE the efforts of both the Federal Government and various state governments in their bid to curb the spread of the novel Coronavirus in the country.
Recall that before the lockdown announced by the President in his first broadcast to the nation on Sunday 29th March 2020, private and public schools in the country had since been closed.
Ever since that closure, NAPPS at the National & state levels has been engaging the Federal Government and state governments respectively on safety protocols for schools ahead of resumption.
1. *READINESS OF PRIVATE SCHOOLS FOR REOPENING OF SCHOOLS*
NAPPS, as a responsive and responsible association, has shown its readiness to ensure the safe phased reopening of schools for JSS3 and SSS3 students in private schools in the country by ensuring member schools strictly adhere to the safety protocols recommended by Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC) to prevent the spread of COVID-19 within the school environments which are as follows:
I Provision of running water and soap for handwashing.
ii. Provision of Infra-red thermometers to monitor staff, students and visitors temperature.
iii. Provision of Sick Bay to be managed by qualified health personnel.
iv. Sensitisation workshop for teaching and non-teaching staff.
v. Provision of Alcohol-based hand sanitizer.
vi. The seating arrangement of 2 meters distance from each other both in classes and school buses.
vii Provision of face masks for staff.
viii. Enforcement of face masks for students, visitors, etc.
ix. Regular washing of surfaces
x. Decontamination of school environment.
xi. Provision of Personal Protective Equipment
It should also be noted that our members had also attended various virtual sensitisation programmes on ways to maintain safe & healthy school environments to prevent the spread of COVID- 19.
To this end, Private schools are fully prepared for school reopening with various safety materials affordably provided to safeguard the health of individuals within the school environments coupled with strict adherence to safety guidelines.
*3. NAPPS POSITION IN RESPECT OF THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF SUSPENSION OF WAEC, NECO, ETC, EXAMINATIONS FOR SSS3 STUDENTS BY FEDERAL MINISTRY OF EDUCATION*
The Board of Trustees and National Executive Council of NAPPS met online on Friday, 10th July 2020 and came up with the following positions:
1. Private Schools are ready for reopening of schools with standard safety protocols in place to prevent the spread of Coronavirus within the school premises.
ii. We also agreed with stakeholders for the phased reopening of schools for JSS3 and SSS3 students only with strict observance of the safety protocols within the school environment.
iii. Private Schools under NAPPS are ready to resume with strict adherence to the safety protocols advised by the NCDC.
iv. Based on our readiness to safely reopen schools in phases starting with JSS3 and more importantly SSS3 students who will be sitting for their SSSCE conducted by WAEC, NECO, etc, we are using this medium to call on the Federal Ministry of Education to revisit its reversal on resumption and suspension of 2020 public examinations (WAEC, NECO, etc) for the following reasons:
a. To avoid emotional trauma that SSS3 students will be subjected to as a result of the cancellation of 2020 SSSCE. For this reason, we will advise the government to deploy the services of Clinical Psychologists to evaluate the state of minds of these students whenever they are ready to sit for these examinations due to mental trauma that will arise as a result of the suspension of these examinations after rigorous preparations by students and knowing full well that their counterparts in other countries will be taking the examination.
b. To avoid a situation where Nigerian students will be forced to seek an alternative way of writing these examinations by approaching neighbouring countries such as Ghana among others which will not be good for the image of the country.
c. As a result of a prolonged closure, the majority of students may likely lose interest in education and embrace social vices inimical to their wellbeing and public safety as well.
d. Consequent upon the announcement of the suspension of the 2020 WAEC examinations for SSS3 students, parents of students in private schools have started to approach the management of private schools demanding the refund of the money paid on behalf of their children to partake in 2020 WAEC examinations which private schools had already remitted to the examination bodies. Their reasons are premised on the decision to utilise the refunds to approach other neighbouring countries so that their children can sit for 2020 WAEC examinations outside the country.
e. Moreover, phased reopening of schools for SSS3 and JSS3 will ensure there will be fewer students in schools than usual which makes physical distancing easier to enforce.
e. Task Force can be instituted by Federal and state governments to monitor and ensure strict compliance during the conduct of the examinations.
f. Considering the level of success achieved so far with the reopening of airports for domestic flights through strict adherence to safety protocols for passengers, we are sure that the same level of success will be recorded when schools are reopened.
g. It should be noted that immediately after the announcement of the suspension of 2020 WAEC examinations for SSS3 students by the Federal Government, NAPPS contacted WAEC Head of National Office who confirmed the position of the Federal Minister of Education and said WAEC would have to wait for further instructions and as such, the position of the Federal Ministry of Education concerning the suspension would stand in Nigeria.
h. Even though we appreciate the safety concerns of the Federal Government, private schools are fully prepared for safe reopening of schools with investment already made to procure safety equipment as advised by Nigeria Council for Disease Control (NCDC) to ensure the safe reopening of schools nationwide.
To this end, NAPPS is appealing to the Federal Government to review its stand on suspension of 2020 public examinations (WAEC, NECO etc).
3. *FEDERAL GOVERNMENT N2.3 TRILLION STIMULUS PACKAGE FOR PRIVATE SCHOOLS & OTHER BUSINESSES*
NAPPS had engaged the Federal Government through Economic Sustainability Committee on the need to support private schools to cushion the effect of COVID - 19 pandemic on the sub-sector. Our justification for requesting palliatives from Federal Government was borne out of the fact that the abrupt closure of schools by the government to protect the students in the country from the outbreak of the pandemic, unfortunately brought a lot of untold hardship to private school owners who rely heavily on school fees to meet up with obligations such as payment of staff salaries, operational costs and repayment of loans obtained from various financial institutions.
For this reason, the recent announcement of the approval of N2.3 trillion Stimulus package to support businesses by the Federal Government with the inclusion of private schools is a welcome development due to potential impact of the stimulus in saving private education sub-sector from imminent collapse as a result of COVID - 19 pandemic.
NAPPS, therefore, appreciates the federal government for the swift response to our request for the support. We are therefore hopeful that the Federal Government will soon release guidelines for private schools to benefit from this support.
NAPPS is equally appreciative of single loan digit approved by Federal Government through CBN N5O billion COVID -19 intervention funds.
4. *GOVERNMENT SUPPORT OF PRIVATE SCHOOLS WITH PERSONAL PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT.*
The Federal Government's proposed support of schools with Personal Protection Equipment underscores safety concerns of the government to its students and citizens; and we appreciate this gesture from the government just as member schools are fully ready to reciprocate this gesture by maintaining healthy school environments in private schools nationwide.
5. *CONCLUSION*
Once again, NAPPS appreciates the efforts of the Federal government to ensure the safe phased reopening of schools and for the release of N2.3 trillion stimulus package to support teachers' salary and CBN N5O Billion single digits intervention loan to cushion the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Once more, l wish to reiterate that private schools are fully equipped to ensure the safe reopening of schools and as such, we will appreciate it if the Federal Government can reconsider its stand on the suspension of 2020 WAEC, NECO, etc, examinations for the emotional wellbeing of already traumatised students in the country.
Therefore, we are willing to have a meeting with Federal Minister and other stakeholders to assure the Federal Minister of Education of the safety protocols that have been put in place in private schools to ensure the safety of students nationwide.
I thank all the media organizations represented during this press conference.
Thank you and God bless
*Chief ‘Yomi Otubela, Fcma*
*National President, NAPPS*
