the fear of parents withdrawing their kids from the private sector is really making a lot of schools do some things that are wrong and this is having a negative effect on education.
For instance, I was made a temporary class teacher last term and even though I didn't like it one bit, I decided I would definitely do something different.
So when we were filling the students' report cards, I wrote 'He is very playful, stubborn and dirty. He is also an average student. There's room for improvement. Then I submitted to my HOD.
You needed to see her screaming and saying I shouldn't write that, that the parents will either complain or withdraw their kids from the school and then 'Mama' will get angry with me.
And I was like 'Lai Lai, these parents need to hear the undiluted truth on how their kids are doing in school so as to also help talk to them, thereby making our work easier and being a better influence on the kid.
But Oga no gree sha. We eventually settled for. ' he's very playful. He's also an average student.' I wasn't happy with that. But what will I do. No be me get school.
Another instance is in the primary sector where parents just come and tell the school they want the kids to be double promoted and mama knows that If she doesn't oblige them, there's a chance they will take the kid to another school who will take them in that class. This is so wrong. Only a teacher can suggest that a child should be given double promotion.
There's this instance of this woman who said her daughter who was doing quite okay after pry 1 should be promoted to pry 3 as against pry 2. Her reason being that the daughter is too tall for the class as she's taller than most of her classmates. TF!!!! And to think this woman is a govt school teacher.
Wetin we go do na, we put her in pry 3 and you need to see how poorly this girl is doing now probably because all she was to learn in pry 2, she couldn't, thanks to the poor decision of her mother. But what can we do, we need their money to keep the school moving.
On issue of class repetition, that one is totally impossible. I remember when I was in pry school, after the exams, if you do poorly, my dear, u ain't moving an inch from that class and parents complied because parents of those days know how important it is for children to do well in school. And even double promotion was only given from pry 4 to pry 6 only after the pry 4 students take a special exam after the normal end of session exams called 'double promotion exam'. Only kids who do well in this particular exam move on to pry 6 while others who passed only the normal exam are promoted to pry 6 and those who didn't unfortunately repeated pry 4.
But nowadays, most private schools don't even have pry 5 anymore as the class will be empty cos no parent would agree for his or her child not to be promoted to pry 6 after p4.
So parents pls, let the teachers do their work. Don't interfere except you know for a fact that the teacher is teaching your kids rubbish (yea, there are so many unqualified teachers out there). Take the truth when they give it to u and use that opportunity to find ways to better your child instead of fighting the teachers thinking they are insulting your child.
