‘Our students can compete with any standard’

How prepared are you for the resumption of your students?Mrs. Otobong Willoby: We have sent them school materials so that when they bring them, we just go ahead and carry out our normal appraisals and assessment which is out tradition. We assess what they know so that we know where to pick up from. You […]

How prepared are you for the resumption of your students?
Mrs. Otobong Willoby: We have sent them school materials so that when they bring them, we just go ahead and carry out our normal appraisals and assessment which is out tradition. We assess what they know so that we know where to pick up from. You know the holiday has been so long. We have also drawn up our schemes because we have some new curriculums we want to run especially for those in the early years. We have also decorated our classes and our teachers are all ready. We have been having trainings for the past two weeks both internal and external.
Health wise, we have bought some infrared thermometers to protect them from the Ebola virus. When they are coming in, we will test the parents, children as well as care-givers coming into the school environment. We have also gotten soap dispensers and buckets where they can wash their hands and we have placed them at all corners of the school as well as the toilets. We have also sent letters to parents to provide their children with portable hand sanitizers even though we will provide in the school and for each class but we still encourage parents to provide for their children.
Are you comfortable with the Sept 22nd school resumption date?
Mrs. Willoby: Yes, we are ready and we are comfortable. We are expecting our children back to school. We have had some parents come in and they are okay with the resumption date.
How do you assess the performance of your teachers to ensure that they are performing their duties accurately?
Mrs. Willoby: Regularly, we have supervision carried out internally and sometimes we get consultants who come in on a weekly basis to check what the teachers are doing. We check the children’s books and we check what the methodology used if it is working with what they have been trained with.
We also set targets for teachers for the crawlers; these are the slow learners. We monitor to ensure that these set of children measure up with their mates in class. We also have the walkers; these are children who perform with the normal expectations of the class. We also set targets for teachers teaching the children in flying level.
If you bear the “international” tag, how prepared are your students to compete internationally?
Mrs. Willoby: Our children are well-equipped and prepared to compete with any standards. We actually run a British-Nigerian curriculum with also a very little part of the American. We have done international exams in French and computer and we have had our children excelling. Our curriculum is drawn from UK. We have the Mathematics from the Nigerian curriculum which is very high. Our children compete favourably in external exams as well as competitions within and outside Abuja. They are ready.