Many school owners and entrepreneurs in the education sector are beginning to groan in pains as expenses mount with no income coming in due to the lockdown caused by the Covid 19 pandemic
Charles Ogwo
Like a hurricane, the rampaging Covid 19 pandemic has caused havoc and grave disruptions to the academic and extra-curricular activities of the education system in Nigeria and the entire world as schools were suddenly forced to shut down before the planned breaks. And there seems to be no hint as to when they will be re-opened.
As a result of this sudden development many educational entrepreneurs are now facing the dilemma of how to strike a balance between keeping the rising costs at bay amidst disappearing or no revenues at all.
The extensions of the initial two-week lockdown by the Federal Government in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Lagos and Ogun States; and the others imposed by some state governments are adding more to the pressure faced by these entrepreneurs as the financial pressures tighten.
Planning and looking for how to keep the schools afloat financially and maintaining ideal academic balance is pushing many proprietors / proprietresses and administrators of schools to the edge.
Mrs. Roseline Abiodun, the owner of ESDAM Nursery and Primary School, in Abaranje, Ikotun, a suburb of Lagos State, stated that the situation is becoming devastating; especially at the way and manner the shutdown is affecting Lagos State.
“It is not a palatable experience, a situation where there is no inflow of revenue and expenditures are on the increase”, she said.
Abiodun explained that the lockdown started when most schools were about to start their second term examination, a period the schools exploit to recover their outstanding fees. Personally, she said, her school lost the opportunity to recover about 40 per cent of its outstanding fees.
“Those owing us were reluctant to pay before then. About 40 per cent of the students were owing and I do not even know how the parents concerned would react to this when school resumes”, she groaned.
The experience of Mrs. Elizabeth Ohaka, the Proprietress of Redwood Academy, in the Ejigbo area of Lagos, is not different from that of Abiodun. Money is not coming and there are lots of expenses to handle.
“Some parents have not even paid their children’s second term school fees, and there are agitations here and there over the situation”, she said.
Also Mrs. Rose Kanu, the Proprietress of Rona Kings and Queens School, Oke Afa, Lagos, is finding the situation quite disturbing.
“Many parents were yet to pay their children and wards school fees when the lockdown was announced. And it is even more difficult trying to get such parents to pay with the prolonged order and consequent economic hardship that comes with it”, she said.
Mrs. Rosslyn Okonobo, the Administrator of King Chuks College, Okota, Lagos, stated that the lockdown has affected the economic situation of many parents of the students in the school, which in turn has affected the income generation of the school.
“The school is at loss over the whole thing. Many are yet to pay for their second term fees. We are facing financial crisis because parents are not going to work now. How do you expect a parent whose source of income is disrupted to pay school fees at the resumption of next term? It is a total house of confusion,” she said.
Mr. Idowu Olaniyi, the Head Teacher, St. Monica College, Ire Akari, Isolo, affirmed that the situation is pathetic and very tough because ordinarily schools rely on parents and guardians for their income. And these parents have been off works for a period.
With this disturbing development, almost all the entrepreneurs are putting on their thinking caps to find the solutions to ameliorate the situation
Abiodun explained that she is putting up strategies to ensure that her staff members are well taken care of with the lean purse of the school caused by the prevailing situation.
“We paid all our staff half of their March salary before they left and ensured that a week after they got the balance to help them cope with the situation. Besides, we paid all academic staff their 3 months lesson fees which was tactically kept to accumulate, hence leaving the teachers with reasonable amounts on hand for the lockdown period”, she noted.
Abiodun stated that her Masters Degree in Education Management and the studies she did in Money Management have gone a long way to help her structure the financial issues of her school.
“With proper financial discipline, the situation on hand won’t be as adverse as many thought it is”, she said.
Based on the strategy being implemented, ESDAM schools is set to arrange palliatives for its staff as soon as school resumes.
Mrs. Grace Okoro, the Head Teacher, Great Cambridge School, Okota, in Lagos explained that the school has put in place an effective plan to enable staff members and the school cope with the situation.
“Our staffs have their March salary paid in full and the April salary also would be paid in full but may be delayed a bit,” Okoro said.
Also many schools are also planning on the continuation of the academic activities despite the lockdown. The strategies for this are varied even though many of the schools are leveraging on technology to carry out their plans. The main communications tool is the Internet.
For Ohaka, the main strategy involved updating her knowledge and those of her staff members in this new area.
“I went for online training and am training my teachers on how to go about online education. We are using online format to keep our students abreast. However, the cardinal challenge here is that most of the parents are not ready for it; besides, many parents are not ready bear the cost of it. Our charge ranges from N5, 000 to N15, 000. Moreover, we use WhatsApp and phone conversations to connect with our students”, she said.
The same is happening at the Great Cambridge School and Rona Kings and Queens School.
“The academic activities are done via WhatsApp and students are encouraged to hook to the broadcast and online education provision of Lagos State to bridge the gap”, Okoro said.
“We use WhatsApp chat to monitor our students, even as we enjoin them to follow the broadcast and online lectures by the state”, Kanu said.
For St. Monica School, Olaniyi reiterated there is a galvanized effort in place to speed up lost academic works, especially for those preparing for secondary school entrance examinations.
“We are dishing out revision questions to our students on daily basis through WhatsApp, besides giving them assignments that covered two weeks, hoping then that the lockdown would end within two weeks”, he said.
Okonobo revealed that King Chuks College has taken some steps to address the biting situation. These include creating a platform for students to interact academically while working out something functional for their online studies.
Also, the Lagos State Universal Basic Education Board (LASUBEB) is offering radio lessons via Eko FM and Radio Lagos for primary school pupils in the state. The interactive radio instruction programmes airing on Eko FM 89.7 and Radio Lagos 107.5FM include Kokoka and Labe Igi Orombo for Primary 1 and 2 pupils from Mondays to Thursdays between 9:30am and 11:55am on Radio Lagos.
Eko FM airs Animal Garden, Learning is Fun, Let’s go Learning, and Aunty Bola’s Workshop for pupils in Primary 3-6 on Mondays to Thursdays between 10.30am and 1pm.
Likewise, the Lagos State Ministry of Education is broadcasting lessons in eight subjects on Wazobia FM and Wazobia TV for Senior Secondary School Class 3 students for the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) and the National Examination Council Examination (NECO).
The subjects are Mathematics, English, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Literature in English, Financial Accounting, Yoruba and Economics.
Even though the end of the lockdown is not in sight, some are already preparing for its aftermath.
Okoro said the uncertainty about the resumption date for the third term is making it difficult to plan. Her school’s immediate action on resumption, she said, will be to arrange a marathon lesson that will help the children cover up for their external examinations.
Olaniyi noted that with the look of things even when school activities are resumed in future, it will very hard to put things in order because a lot of damages had been inflicted on the system.
But there are some with optimistic feelings in spite of this seeming bad situation, especially in term of finances.
“There is always cumulative income accrue to every organization that has been in the system for awhile. Schools can fall back on such income to arrest the ugly situation. Those who have been in the system for years, and those who are prudent with their income, have a fall back mechanism which can be used to salvage the coronavirus effects”, she said.
