By DEE FIRE MEDIA Correspondent
COVID-19 lockdown has denied the school owners and teachers access to their means of livelihood. GRACE EDEMA writes on the experiences of both the proprietors and tutors during the ongoing pandemic
Since the COVID-19 lockdown started in March this year, Mr and Mrs Ogunlola have not been able to feed and meet other obligations for themselves and their two-year-old twins.
This is because they are both teachers in private secondary schools in the Alimosho Local Government Area of Lagos State and have not received salaries due to the lockdown and school closure.
Mrs Ogunlola, who spoke to our correspondent on the phone, said her salary was N20, 000, while her husband earns N30,000. She added that the last time she got a full salary was in March, while her husband was only paid half salary that month and had not been paid a kobo since then.
“It has been rough and tough. After the March salary payment that I got, the other teachers and I got just half salaries again mid-May and since then, we haven’t got any other. My husband’s school is even worse. After they were paid half salaries in March, the school has not bothered to pay them again till now. We always beg relatives and friends for money to feed our twins, who are always crying of hunger,” she said.
Globally, countries that recorded the COVID-19 cases closed down all activities, including schools in order to curb its spread. In Nigeria too, the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 has said it isn’t safe yet to reopen schools due to the increasing number of infections in the country.
As such, educational professionals, especially those in the private sector, who make income basically from school fees, are at the receiving end.
Investigations revealed that most teachers were struggling to feed their families due to the lockdown and their employers’ inability to pay them salaries.
Teachers, who are getting a fraction of their salaries, are those who work in schools that are conducting e-learning and they only charge a token. These schools are proactive and have been able to harness the benefits of online teaching through which they are able to pay certain amounts to their teachers.
This implies that not all schools are having e-learning classes and teachers in such schools do not have hopes of earning any income.
A teacher at a private school in the Ojudu Berger area of the state, Evelyn Chukwu, narrated that she and the others were only paid full salaries in April and from then, the salaries had been cut down.
“My director told parents to pay N10,000 per month for online classes, but the responses she got from parents on the WhatsApp forum were so demoralising. Some abused her and said a lot of things like they no longer have good jobs and that their businesses have crumbled. We eventually agreed to N2,500 per child, which most of them are still not paying,” she said.
Chukwu explained further that the financial statuses of teachers before now had not been encouraging and the lockdown of schools made it more difficult.
It is not only the teachers that are in this quagmire, some school owners have sad tales to tell too. Our correspondent gathered that some owners had put up their school building for sale, while others have vacated the rented premises due to the proprietors’ inability to pay rent.
Recently, a school owner, Esther Ometere, lamented on the social media that her rent was due and she did not know what to do to get money to pay since she had not made any income for the past three months.
Some teachers and school owners, who are not able to leverage on e-learning and earn from it are now engaging in different businesses to make ends meet and provide for their families as they await school reopening.
The COVID-19 lockdown is also an eye-opener for most teachers, who have seen the need to have multiple sources of income.
The Proprietor of Javic School, Friday Avoseh, said he foresaw that the lockdown would be extended so he had to look for a side business to engage in.
“Since I started my school, I have made progress in all ramifications of life, but my experience during this COVID-19 pandemic made me to think outside the box and to make hay while the sun shines. I foresaw the lockdown extension and I quickly diversified in the first two weeks of the lockdown,” he said.
He also advised teachers, “My candid advice for private school teachers is to diversify for now pending when the schools will resume; and when schools resume, they should still continue with their side hustle. But if the school schedule is not giving room for side hustle, then the teacher should continue to work for the meantime to gather capital and leave the teaching job for his/her business. Self-help is the best help.”
Another school owner, Deagbo Olayemi, said he designed a plan to ensure steady income by organising home tutorial for his students when he noticed that parents did not want to pay for online classes.
Olayemi stated, “I operate in a local community, where people don’t embrace e-learning; it is either they complain about cost of data or lack of stable electricity or the amount we charge. I opened an e-learning centre for a month and it was well patronised, but when it came to monthly charges, many parents withdrew their children because of the problems I have mentioned above.
“Right now, because of family and domestic responsibilities, I have designed a sustainable means of meeting up with my students. I have what I termed ‘family tutorial’ and I have some committed families, whom I visit thrice a week to give the kids two to three hours of coaching each day.”
A teacher, Peter Dugbo, who was empathetic towards his colleagues’ trauma, decided to found a group, the Nigerian Private School Teachers Association, which aims at addressing the challenges faced by both private school teachers and school owners during this pandemic.
He stated, “Many private school teachers, who are our members, have suffered untold hardship during the lockdown arising from the outbreak of COVID-19 in Nigeria. Salaries of over three months have not been paid by school owners, who themselves are terribly hit as the source of revenue for private schools is mainly the school fees.
“Many parents lost their sources of income and as a result, they are financially incapacitated. Secondly, as some schools took to online teaching, most of those engaged in that venture charge a little amount on a monthly basis. From the forgoing, many teachers have lost their jobs. Following their survival instincts, many teachers have resorted to selling anything from recharge cards, fish to meat; some have ventured out into the transport business; the list is endless.
“They must keep body and soul together. It’s disheartening and regrettable; many of them will never return to the teaching profession when normalcy returns to the school system.
“Teachers, who are the producers of the leaders of tomorrow, have been let down by the society they are giving their all to. The government at the federal and state levels never remembered them when they rolled out palliatives. Private school owners were never given any bailout that would enable them pay their teachers.
“This is grossly unacceptable. How about those with wives, who are about to put to bed? Where will the money come from to meet up with the expenses that the high cost of living has thrown at them? Their situations are unimaginable. Recently, a school owner put up his school for sale. The situation is that bad.”
An executive member of the Association of International School Educators of Nigeria, Mrs Kofoworola Karunwi, commended the resilience of teachers and advised the government to support private schools with funds.
She said, “I doff my hat and thank teachers for their continued commitment to securing the future of our nation through their work with the children. God bless them all.
“To the government, we keep hearing about palliatives, but have seen nothing. Schools are registered; member of staff pay taxes; there is information if there is a genuine willingness to support the industry. When we resume, there will be further expenditure on getting our schools ready. What is the government willing to do to help us?
“Education is a vital area of our economy and indeed the existence of our nation; the private sector is helping the government to educate children that cannot even be absorbed into the public school system, so they should regard us as partners in progress and plan to support us to meet the demands of our new normal. We are contributors to this economy too.”
The National Chairman, National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools, Mr Yomi Odubela, was optimistic that school owners and teachers would soon experience relief as the government has promised to include them in the New Nigeria Economic Sustainability Plan.
“Our members will soon smile. Just two weeks ago, the Federal Executive Committee approved our letter requesting bailout to pay our teachers and single digit loans; we also demanded support in the area of medical materials to curb the spread of COVID-19 in our schools. So, our members will soon smile and every private school is supposed to be a member,” he emphasized.
Until the NAPPS members are able to receive the bailout, the depressive lamentations and traumatic experience of private school teachers during this lockdown will continue. Additionally, some of the teachers, who have found more profitable means of earning income may not return to the classrooms when the schools reopen.
Source: DEE FIRE MEDIA.
