As schools resume for the 2024/2025 academic session across the nation from tomorrow, the economic and social dislocation caused by last week hike in the pump price of petrol is causing panic among school owners, parents, teachers and students.

Findings by Sunday Vanguard show that some private school owners are confused on how to cope with the rise in the cost of doing business, as the price hike came after they have given parents what they would pay as fees for the new session and there is the possibility of resistance by parents to any addition to the bill just days to resumption. 

On Tuesday, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited, NNPC Ltd, increased petrol pump price from N580 per litre to N855.

The development triggered outrage in various sectors as the product is now sold for between N900 and N1, 200 per litre in many parts of the country.

 Part-time appointments 
 As the cost of living has been on the rise and many private schools finding it difficult to pay living wages to teachers, a new trend is emerging among private school teachers – they are now opting for part-time appointments, especially in core subject areas such as English Language, Mathematics, and Sciences.

The development is denying many of affected schools competent hands to teach such subjects, while there are many vacancies in public schools yet to be filled. 

One of such teachers, who simply gave his name as Gabriel, said he joined the fray when he saw that sticking to one school would not be of any advantage to him.

“I teach Mathematics and Further Mathematics and I won’t say the trend is new, but I can say it is on the increase now”, Gabriel told Sunday Vanguard at the weekend.

“The reason is simple. Most private schools are not paying much. If you ask for a pay rise, you may be labeled something else. Although some parents are owing fees too and school owners are under pressure.

“What I do is that I take two lessons per week in the subjects and I have them arranged in a way that the classes don’t clash. Also, I am always ready to go the extra mile by spending extra minutes, especially when the classes are close to break period or closing time.

“Proprietors who know the quality of what I teach don’t mind me as a part-time teacher. I make more money and have some kind of freedom to do other things and not being tied to a school”. 

 Complaint galore
 On their part, teachers in public schools who cannot afford to work on part-time basis are not finding the situation funny. Only days ago, Lagos State government announced that it would allow workers in its employ to work from home at least two days in a week, except those in critical sectors.

A teacher in one of the state-owned secondary schools in the state, Akinleye, other names withheld, said teachers would not benefit from such a gesture. 

“We go to school every day. That kind of consideration is not meant for us. Some people may say we do have holiday periods in the course of the session, but the holidays are more or less like our going on annual leave”, Akinleye said.

“However, most people don’t know that even during holiday, we sometimes attend seminars, prepare for resumption and do other things that one may not really spend all the days at home.

“Another factor is that many teachers are not serving close to where they live. It is not like your school is here and your home is in the backyard. Commuting daily from home to school is costly.

“You asked about the ‘Teacher Buses’. How many of them do you find on the road now? Most are grounded. When the BRT scheme started, some buses were deployed to ferrying civil servants, including teachers, but those buses are gradually reducing in number now”. 

 Bus service
 When Mrs. Gladys Grimes, who owns primary and secondary schools in Agbado area of Lagos, decided to stop school bus service, it was like she foresaw what would later happen.

The decision, taken over four years ago, is now proving to be a wise one.

She had based her decision then on the cost of servicing and maintaining the buses, the cost of running them, the poor state of inner roads which the buses plied and fuel price.

Today, the situation has not improved but is rather worsening. 

Another school owner, who craved anonymity, said she had to scale down the operations of bus service and may eventually scrap it.

“We started by appealing to parents who live close by to find means of getting their children to school, as we started to scale down the bus service”, she told Sunday Vanguard.

“We are now focusing on those students living a bit far off. To make it easier for us, students and parents, we are increasing our hostel facilities, and we are encouraging more students to live in the hostels.

“We know that the cost of running the hostels is also high, but we are doing our best and we also know that parents do augment what their children will eat by providing them with beverages, biscuits and other snacks.

“Our duty now is to ensure that pilfering of items and other vices are not allowed in the hostels.
“I am sure many school owners will eventually abandon bus service, it is not worth it with the high cost of fuel and maintenance”.

Scramble to put wards in nearby schools
 Awelewa Sunday represents what some parents and guardians are struggling to do now – he is determined to get his children in nearby schools.

Of his three children remaining in school, one is in secondary school, the other two are in primary school.

“The first boy finished his secondary school education last July, thank God for that. I have to secure places for the others in nearby schools”, Sunday said.

“We live in Ajasa area of Lagos and if you check, from Meiran down to Ajasa Command and Ilo, the boundary between Lagos and Ogun states, you can count the number of public primary and secondary schools.

“To the best of my knowledge, we have six public secondary schools of which one is even a junior secondary school that ends at JSS 3. 

“That makes some of our children to be posted to public schools in Agege and Egbeda among others.“If one now considers the cost of transport to those places, it is uneconomical. It is better one finds a private school that is affordable nearby for the children to attend. “From Command to Abule Egba now, if one goes by tricycle, the fare is between N400 and N500 per trip.

“From Abule Egba to Agege, it is between N300 and N400 per trip; how much will a student now spend on transport to and from school? The situation is killing”. 

 Pay teachers Hardship Allowance – NUT
 Commenting on the development, the Nigeria Union of Teachers, NUT, has called for the payment of Hardship Allowance for teachers.

The Secretary General of the NUT, Dr Mike Ene, told Sunday Vanguard that because of the fact that education is on the Concurrent List in the Constitution, government providing buses to convey teachers to and from schools might not work.

“Federal, state and local governments are employers of teachers at different levels and they have varied capacities”, Ene said. “But, if a palliative measure of assisting them cope with high transport fare is agreed, it could be monetised. “It is going to be a sort of palliative measure. The agreed sum can now be paid to teachers whether at the primary or secondary school level.

“What is obvious is that the new wage structure is not enough to take teachers to school and back home.
“Do you know that not all states implemented the N30, 000 minimum wage before this new regime of N70, 000?

“And some states are giving workers what I call human face holiday, asking them to go to office thrice weekly, but teachers are not going to benefit from that.

“They go to school five times a week. If they are lecturers in higher institutions they can find means of scheduling their lectures.

“As long as we are not serious with education, and we want hungry teachers to teach our children, they will teach hungrily.

“A happy teacher will also teach happily. It is a matter of garbage in, garbage out. I gathered that the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress is saying that they accepted the N70, 000 minimum wage based on the understanding that the price of fuel won’t be increased, but it has been jerked up more than once since then”.

Parents are in critical situation —Out-of-School children menace will worsen – NAPTAN
 The National President of the National Parent Teacher Association of Nigeria, NAPTAN, Alhaji Haruna Danjuma, expressed the fear that many pupils and students may drop out of school and make worse the OSC menace in the country.

According to him, many parents are already finding it extremely difficult to cope with the high cost of living and then the further hike in petrol cost. 

“The policy on education is that pupils and students should attend schools not far from their abodes, but that is not the case now”, Danjuma said.

“Many have to trek long distances to get to school. Most of our schools are not really schools – they are not conducive to teaching and learning. But our children still have to attend them.

“Some schools are hard to reach and hard to staff, what I mean is that such schools are not located in places that are easily accessible or where teachers are willing to go and work. 

“While we are sensitizing parents on the need to take their children to school for formal education, all these policies are discouraging some parents.

“I have spoken to a number of parents in the last few days and what I get as responses are not pleasant.

“Some said they cannot even afford new cost of transport to their places of work, how will they take care of their children if such are schooling in distant locations?

“Parents are in critical situation now. Businesses are not doing well, taking care of families is becoming difficult and more pressure added to their lives.

“Where are we heading as a nation? Putting children in school has become a huge burden to many parents. They are more than stretched.

“My suggestion to the government is that they should do a palliative measure for students and parents.

“One way of doing that is to procure buses that will be dedicated to conveying students to and from school.

“They can also pay allowances to parents or students to ameliorate their suffering”.