Chief 'Yomi Otubela (FCMA), is the proprietor of Lagooz Schools International, Orile Agege, Lagos State. As a former President of Lagos State NAPPS, he is presently the National 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 Heritage Lifestyle 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 NEW NAPPS PORTAL?
The 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 PREVIOUS CONFERENCE?
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.
