Schools’ mandatory extra lessons spark debate

Extra lessons are fast becoming a norm in Nigerian schools as many are incorporating them as part of the education system.

Extra-lesson is teaching and learning beyond the conventional classroom arrangement and involves a more deliberate and in-depth focus on a subject matter already discussed in the classroom.

Opeyemi Julius, an SS2 student in a private school in Abuja says she likes extra lessons in school only because they provide her with a chance to stay longer in school to avoid chores at home.

She agrees that the lessons can be exhausting and sometimes boring because one would have been tired from the routine classes.

Extra lessons are compulsory for every student in Opeyemi’s school and it attracts an extra fee. She doesn’t know the exact amount being paid for the extra lesson by her parents, though.

“We stay in school on a normal day till 4 o’clock but during examinations, we stay till 6 o’clock at times,” she said.

Another student, Felix said he sees no difference in what is called extra-lesson and normal classroom teaching, adding that most students pay little attention because they are already tired having stayed through school hours.

Before now, extra lessons were used mostly to prepare students for specialised and certificate examinations or to improve learning outcomes for lowachieving students and were usually by private arrangement.

Now, it is part of the educational system in Nigeria as most schools keep their students and pupils beyond the official closing time which is usually between 12 and 2 pm. This is even as most schools have commercialized the process as they attract extra fees.

In some cases, some parents adopt the private lesson format where the teachers visit the pupils and students at home to teach them.

While some experts and parents have questioned the impact of having extra lessons, and the performance of their wards who take extra lessons, others have said it is just another way for schools to make extra money and teachers to augment their meagre salary.

A parent, Suleiman Eshiotsekhai expressed concern at what he described as “information overload for the children.”

He said schools, especially the privately owned ones, were now in the habit of organizing extra lessons for pupils and students to raise extra money.

“That comes at a prize for the children whose brain is still developing. I understand that we cannot compare today with our time when only a few subjects were taught in primary and secondary schools. Today, I see my little kids going to school with huge bag of books and they are taught at least 17 subjects. I think that is too much for the young minds of the kids; and when you add the extra lessons, I truly think the government should regulate it,” Mr Eshiotsekhai said.

Another parent, Victoria Julius, said she had to stop her children from attending extra classes in school where it’s not because she could not meet up with the demands of paying lesson fees.

She said: “I feel there is no much difference from what they are teaching them in class, so they can read at home.

“The only problem is that they give priority to children whose parents pay for private lessons to justify the money they pay the teachers. So I will prefer the private teaching to the ones the schools offer,” she said.

A teacher in a private school in Abuja, Mr. Hassan Ibrahim, told Daily Trust that the only extra lesson organised by the school he teaches in was for JS3 students. Even that has been suspended “so that they will have time to do personal study before their forthcoming examination.”

He said in the previous school where he taught, lessons were done for JSS3 and SS3 classes to prepare them adequately for their certificate exams. This is normally done after closing hours but for JSS3, “we have early morning class for English before normal time for school to commence and at noon, they have about five extra classes in a week.”

The schools charge N10,000 and above per student, Daily Trust learned.

Mr Ibrahim said for a private tutor, the least some teachers charge is N1, 000 per hour but it is usually between N1500 depending on the subject and the level.

He noted that some teachers throw ethics to the wind through passing students whom they engage in private lessons to justify the money parents paid them and that some even revealed exam questions to the students to make sure they passed well at the end of the day, noting that it is unfair to other students.

“I don’t think you are helping the child in the long run. The major issue is that most parents don’t have time for their children and to follow up what their children do in the school.”

“When you have parents who do not care about what their children do in school or to know whether they have done their assignments, it is a big issue because it is a complementary role between the schools and the parents. So if the parents are not doing theirs, there is little the schools can do,” he said.

The Chairman of Voyage International School, Abuja, Mr. Yussuff Oriyomi, reacting to extra lessons made compulsory by schools, said there is a need for the lessons but not for everyone.

“It must not become a school thing and making it compulsory. That shouldn’t be and some schools do it because they feel it’s a way of enriching the teachers through extra income. But even if they want to do it, it should be at home,” he said.

Mr Oriyomi said as a school they don’t do extra lessons but do enrichment classes which come at the point of admission. “When we are admitting you if we assess you in English and Mathematics and we find out you are poor in them, we try to enrich you but it’s not forever. It may be for a term until you have caught up with your mates, then you are off the enrichment.”

He noted that it is strictly on a need basis and not a blanket thing for everybody.

On teachers who passed the students they tutor in private lessons, he said: “As a school, we make it a policy that if you are teaching a child at school, you cannot teach him at home so that the integrity of the assessment is not compromised.”

He said if parents are engaging them, they have to come to the management and they will recommend the teacher. “We make sure the teacher is not your son/daughter’s teacher,” he emphasised.

“We never had a teacher favouring students they tutor but if we do, we will make sure we dismiss the teacher involved,” he concluded.