Parents and teachers in Kaduna State have rejected the state government’s idea of migrating to a four-day working week in public schools in the state.
Respondents, who spoke with newsmen, observed that migrating to the four-day working week would have a greater effect on the educational standard of the students, saying that already, the state is left behind educationally.
The state government had on Sunday, in a statement issued by the Commissioner for Education, Halima Lawal, explained that the 2021/2022 academic calendar would be adjusted to ensure coverage of the curriculum for the academic session.
She added that all public schools are to migrate to the four-day working week while the 2021/2022 academic calendar would be adjusted to ensure coverage of the curriculum for the academic session.
Reacting to the state government’s comment, Bitrus Musa, a parent, lamented that the state does not mean well for the educational sector and refused to consult stakeholders in the field to give their advice on the best way forward for the state before making the statement public.
According to him, “In a democratic system, l expected the state government to have a proper consultation with stakeholders on the way forward educationally but for the government to come up such policy is much unfortunate for a government to introduce a policy without hearing from the people it is governing.”
He said it was shocking that the government decided on a four-day working week while students are trying to cover lost grounds due to the shut down of schools in 2020 during the pandemic.
According to Mohammed Saidu, “What the state government is doing shows a lack of respect to the governed. Supposing the state government has respect for those that they are leading, a stakeholders meeting would have been organised to bring the idea to the table with a view of finding a possible answer to it before coming up with its decision.”
In the view of Saleh Musa, “We must as stakeholders rise to the occasion and condemn the decision of the state government in order to give out the best education the children deserve. Failure to do something, we will be held responsible for anything negative that happens in future because most of the government officials don’t have children schooling at home and we will be left to suffer the consequences.”
A teacher in one of the primary schools, who declined to mention his name, blasted the decision made by the state government, describing the decision as barbaric and completely out of place in the modern days of learning that children need more days in school.
