Thursday, 7 July 2016

NAPPS Is the Only Registered Association of Private School Owners known to FG – Otubela

 
Otubela Yomi, is the proprietor of Lagooz Schools International, Orile Agege, Lagos State. As a former President of Lagos State NAPPS, he is presently the National Deputy President of NAPPS. He is also a former Chairman of Orile Agege Local Government Development Area (LCDA). As an educator, administrator and chairman of the organization, he spoke with 6334reporters on some of the measures that the association has taken to achieve the goals of its national body. Excerpts:



WHAT IS THE IDEA BEHIND THE SOUTH-WEST NAPPS CONFERENCE?

We have three-in-one programme; the first is the adoption of a common calculator by all our members in the South West Zone. The same calculator is the same tool recommended for use by the West Africa Examinations Council (WAEC). We have also received complaints by some of our students that they have not been exposed to the use of some gadgets used during the examination. With this adoption, we have a determination to help these children from the junior level to the Senior Secondary school, so that te fear of using these tools would be reduced.
We have also launched a portal for use by our members, students and parents. This new NAPPS Portal  would allow us identify all our national members. This is a process of aiding E-Education in the country. School owners can easily download the new reviewed education curriculum. Teachers can also have access to new instructional materials that aid students’ learning in the classrooms.
The portal is an all-encompassing platform to engage all the operators within the education value chain. Students can access notes and submit their assignments. Parents can also monitor the activities of the children via the online portal. The school system will become an in-house school, out-of-school system school and open school that can be accessed by all.

HOW DO YOU INTEND TO WALK THE TALK?

We are not new in the field of education. We have been in it for a while. We have ensured that every stakeholder buys into our plans. This is achievable through sensitization programmes that we have initiated. We have gone from state to state to enlighten our members. There are also paper policies that have been shared amongst our members to ensure that we are upping our games. All the members have signed into some of the solutions that the national body, NAPPS National, has initiated so far. We shall be ensuring within the next two years that all our members fully adopt e-learning in their operations.

WHAT ABOUT THE SCHOOL SECURITY, THE TOPIC THAT WAS USED AS THE THEME OF THE CONFERENCE AND THE CHILDREN’S DAY CELEBRATION?

On the school children, we have trained the teachers, have conducted orientation programmes for our children and through the conference we have also been able to sensitize our members. One of the key points is to ensure that government signs in to improve on the security apparatus of the country. We want the government to equip all the various streets and areas where both public and private schools are available, with security men including the para-military and intelligence security operatives would tighten the noose on any unexpected security breach in and around our school children. Men of the underworld would be aware that we are keeping a strong eye on their activities.

WHAT OTHER MEASURES HAVE YOU PUT IN PLACE TO ENSURE THAT SECURITY BREACHES ARE NOT ALLOWED UNDER YOUR WATCH?
We have also adopted the slogan and mantra , ‘You see something, and you say something.’ The meaning of this is that there are so many security threats around us that could be spotted and recognized by anybody including the school children. What this has done is to ensure that we are fully sensitive to happenings around our immediate environment. We have urged our people not to show lackadaisical attitude toward any form of security breach. See any security threat, and such must be immediately reported to the security operatives around.
There is also a paper policy that we have also launched. Safety policy in school system is a step-by-step policy of what the school needs to check on regularly on daily, weekly and monthly basis. And the kind of training that must be given to parents, teachers and school owners within the school and outside the school. We have gone further to engage our immediate community on possible security breaches. We have ensured every elder on the street can put an eagle eye on our environment in order to ensure that everyone is safe.

WHAT ARE YOU DOING ABOUT SCHOOLS WHERE OUTSTANDING STUDENTS ARE FACED WITH THE INABILITY TO PAY THEIR TUITION FEES?

We have scholarship programmes that we have provided for children that are finding it difficult to pay their school fees. Government has also done its part in the area of providing public schools to take care of some of these young and ambitious ones. There are individuals that are giving millions of Naira worth of scholarship to students from other schools, one of which is Yomi Otubela Foundation. NAPPS has also encouraged its members to prioritize giving scholarships to students who are finding it difficult to pay their tuition fees.

WHAT OF LOANS TO YOUR MEMBERS?

We have the NAPPS Multi-purpose Cooperative Society that gives loans at almost zero interest rate to our members. It is prominent and a lot of members have drawn tokens from it for the development of their schools. All they just have to do is to subscribe with as little as N10,000 per month and they would have access to the funds. This provides them with the opportunity to getting as much as N10 million as loan to build their schools.

WHAT MAKES NAPPS NATIONAL DIFFERENT FROM OTHER ASSOCIATIONS OF SCHOOL OWNERS IN THE COUNTRY?


We stand out amongst other registered association of school owners and educators, because our programmes started a long time ago. Just last year, we celebrated our 10 years merger with various bodies that had been before the birth of NAPPS. This merger has made us so strong in the country as the major and co-ordinated association of school owners. We have members in all the 36 states and Federal Capital Territory, FCT. We are the only registered association of private school owners recognized by Federal Government. For now, there is no association that has the kind of national spread that we have. 

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