COVID-19 Responsible For Students’ Low Scores In 2021 UTME ― School Director
Director, New Beacon International School, Apo-Dutse, Abuja has attributed the mass failure recorded by candidates in the 2021 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) to the impacts of COVID-19.
He said many schools could not afford to pay their teachers even after the ease of lockdown to adequately prepare the students for the exams.
According to him, operation costs became so high that many schools had no other option than to sack their teachers or shut down.
Ozigi who fielded questions from Journalists at the maiden graduation ceremony of his school for children leaving from SS3 to university, JSS 3 to SS1 and for the playgroup going to reception and primary 1 on Saturday appealed to the federal government to come to the aid of the private schools in Nigeria.
He said that the sector needs palliatives to sustain itself.
The Director urged the Federal Capital Territory FCT authorities to ensure they monitor and evaluate operations of the schools to enforce educational standards.
He however said that his school was not affected by the pandemic as the management developed strategies to ensure students and teachers were taught and paid accordingly.
He said: “Coping with COVID has not been easy. Part of the coping strategies which we expected that there should be palliative from governments. The private institutions should be supported.
“I don’t think that the initiative has worked because some of us have not been able to access some of those palliatives from the Federal Government. However, on our own as directors of the school and other partners, we put funds together to see how we can run the school without stopping.
“Even though with COVID, you would be surprised that we are still paying teachers. We paid them up to a certain level that we now have to pay them half salary, then eventually there was a lift in September. So, we did not allow them to go because we want to retain them.
“So we did not stop or sack anyone or terminate any appointment. And they are happy for the fact that it did not affect our calendar because we have a uniform calendar in FCT and at the same time.
“Our curriculum here is British-Nigerian Montessori Curriculum. Year 1 to 6 is Primary six. Year 7, 8, 9 is JSS 1 to 3. year 10, 11, 12 is SS1 to 3.
“If the government can support the private sector with some funding at a reasonable rate that we can pay back, you will see that we would improve more.
“Our product would be well improved in terms of capacity and performance. Even the teachers would be well-taken care of.
“The government should as much as possible send in monitors, strengthen the monitoring and evaluating system of schools and regulate it properly and ensure they have sufficient report and feedback to know where gaps are identified.