• As economic hardship worsens
By Olakunle Olafioye
The long vacation is gradually winding down. Expectedly, the countdown to resumption has thrown up contrasting emotions.
For schoolchildren, particularly those fortunate to move to the next class, the joy of successfully moving up another rung on the ladder in their academic pursuit, and the prospect of reuniting with their classmates and friends is so intense that many of them can hardly wait for the official resumption date.
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Hameerat Olowonla, an SS3 student of Surulere Community Secondary School, Alagbado, Lagos, said she was eagerly looking forward to returning to school after over a month of holiday.
The Lagos State Government, like most state governments, has set September 15, 2025 as the official commencement day for the 2025/2026 academic session but to Hameerat, the seven-week holiday is too long a period to miss the excitement that comes with schooling in a state like Lagos. “I wish I could make the remaining days (of the holiday) come faster,” she quipped in response to a question on how she felt ahead of the new academic year.
Hameera’s excitement contrasts sharply with the feelings of many parents, who often get anxious at the dawn of a new academic year as they claim the period often comes with loads of challenges. To majority of them, it is a season for a wholesale change of school kits – uniforms, bags, shoes, stationery and more importantly, a period when schools introduce new requirements and increase their fees. The enormity of the financial burden of preparing their children for resumption, many claim, make them forgo other major responsibilities during this period in order to ensure their children resume with their colleagues when schools finally open.
The picture of the period is better observed at bookshops which are often beehives of activity during the weeks and days leading to school resumption. A bookshop operator at Ota area of Ogun State, Mrs Eunice Olayinka, confirmed to Sunday Sun that the period preceding school resumption has always been the peak period for book business. She, however, lamented that this year appeared to be different as she was yet to experience the usual traffic. “Patronage has been very low this year compared to previous years. By this time last year, my children were all here to assist me (to attend to customers). But this year, it’s just only one of them, with my salesgirl, that is here with me,” Mrs. Olayinka said lamentably, blaming the situation on the hard economy.
Textbooks are just one of the many items whose purchases parents must renew if their children must be well prepared for resumption. School uniforms, bags, shoes, stationery and ultimately, school fees are several others that must be catered for. A parent, Mrs. Idiat Adebayo, estimated a complete set of back-to-school kit per child at N150, 000. Speaking from her personal experience, Adebayo who said she had only procured parts of the items her children needed for resumption said Nigerian parents with a minimum of three kids in primary and secondary school might have to cough out an average of close to a million naira to get their children prepared for resumption.
“In my own case, I have bought books worth N120,000 for my kids, three of them, and still have few items yet to be bought left. By the time I complete the purchase of all the books, I will be talking about N150, 000 to N160,000. School uniforms, sportswear and other school customized wear will be bought. Then you have the school bags, shoes, food flasks and the school fees. “Getting all these for a child, including his or her school fees, will cost nothing less than N350, 000. So parents with three children should be looking at a rough budget of close to a million naira,” she summed.
An educationist, Mr Taofik Sunmonu expressed concern about the exploitative practices by some school owners who deliberately make things difficult for parents, especially at the beginning of new school years. Sunmonu who recalled that in the past, students were allowed to re-use textbooks earlier used by the elder siblings, rued the culture of waste and exploitation foisted on parents nowadays by some private school operators, which according to him, has made it difficult for siblings to use the textbooks earlier used by older siblings.
Such practices, according to him, include recommending unpopular textbooks and compelling pupils to write in their textbooks. His words: “Some private schools recommend textbooks that are not readily available in bookshops and will therefore compel parents to purchase them from the school at inflated prices. This practice not only burdens parents financially but also undermines trust between parents and schools. A more transparent approach would be for schools to adopt textbook procurement processes that allow parents to source materials from various outlets.
“Again, the practice of forcing students to write in their textbooks and rendering the books unusable for their younger siblings is not only wasteful but also puts parents under unnecessary pressure. Schools should encourage the use of workbooks or digital platforms for assessments in order to preserve the textbooks for future use,” he noted.
Sunmonu, therefore, called on the Federal Government to encourage a nationwide adoption of the new policy introduced by Imo State Government, which mandates the use of textbooks for a minimum of four years..
Besides the financial burden of preparing their children for the resumption of the new academic year, there are parents who are also concerned about the return to the regimented routines associated with daily demand of preparing their children for school. For many of them, the holiday has been a period of reprieve and relief from routines such as having to wake up early in a bid to prepare the children for school on a daily basis; taking them to and from school, and monitoring them to ensure they do their assignments, among other itineraries..
Resuming these daily chores after the holiday is both herculean and monotonous, said Mrs Uju Ifejokwu, a mother of three.
“School resumption to me, means that I have to rise early to get the children ready for school so that they don’t go late to school. It is very tasking because I will have to do it on a daily basis except on weekends. Aside that it can also be monotonous, especially for people like me that do not have grown up children that can assist. Another reason I get anxious when schools are about to resume is that the task of rousing the children out of the bed is somehow demanding. Sometimes you find it hard to wake the children in the morning until you have to shout and wake the entire people in the neighbourhood,” she said.
An educationist, Mrs Modupe Idowu, admitted that readjusting one’s schedules after the long vacation can indeed be demanding for parents and cumbersome for schoolchildren who have probably got used to the relaxed mood associated with holidays. She, therefore, admonished parents to guard against what she described as a “sudden switch-over” from the holiday mood to resumption mood, saying such can impact negatively on children.
“Parents and guardians must avoid the sudden switch-over approach in trying to readjust their children or wards’ daily schedules when schools are resuming. If during the holiday you allow your children to stay in bed, let’s say till about 8.00 am, about two weeks to resumption, you should bring it down to 7.00 am and a week before resumption you bring it to 6.00 am. Similarly you need to gradually adjust the time they go to bed. Ensure they go to bed earlier. In similar manner, you adjust the time they leave their bed. If, for, instance you allowed them to go to bed late during the holiday you can reduce it by one hour two weeks before resumption and another one hour a week to resumption,” she admonished.
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