Private school teachers in Lagos State, Nigeria have been off work since March this year.
This was the month the state government proactively closed down schools to control the spread of coronavirus.
As a result of the timely closure, we didn’t hear horror stories of students coming home from school with the dreaded virus.
But the State Government should also have made sure that owners and teachers of private schools have palliatives.
Government-owned school teachers have been paid salaries every month. But private school teachers have been left at home with no payment. Normally, they depend on school fees.
Even when private school teachers attempted to start third term through innovative online teaching, the Lagos State Government barred them from doing so.
They said allowing private schools to go ahead with third term while Government-owned schools remain closed wouldn’t be fair.
Observers suspect another reason for this was that the Government had no plans to set up online schooling for government-owned schools.
The bottom-line of what we are saying is that government should provide palliatives for private school teachers and owners so they can take care of their families. This should last until schools reopen.
God help us
Amen
Noted