Some private schools in Enugu State now hold classes on Saturdays following the ‘collapse’ of academic activities on Mondays as a result of the sit-at-home order issued by the Indigenous People of Biafra.
The group instituted the order to press home their demand for the release of their leader Nnamdi Kanu.
Kanu is facing treason charges for running a proscribed organisation.
Some of the school proprietors interviewed warned against mentioning their names and their schools for security reasons.
One of them, located at Emene, Enugu, said, “It is an internal measure adopted by the school management and the parents to make up for lost grounds. The academic curriculum runs whether we go to school or not. And the pupils and students write the same external exams as their counterparts outside this region.
“Instead of allowing Mondays to waste just like that, we devised a means. Our supposed academic activities on Mondays now hold on Saturdays.”
A principal of a private school, along University Market road at Nsukka, on condition of anonymity, said, “We won’t allow the education of our children to die just like that. As such, we deliberated on the way forward, and converted our Mondays to Saturdays. That is the only way we fill the vacuum of the sit-at-home. We wouldn’t like to risk any child’s life.”
A parent, Cajethan Odo, said, “It is to the advantage of pupils and parents. We pay the school fees accordingly. So, we commend the school authorities for the innovations. I am personally happy.”
A pupil in one of the schools said she was happy. In her words, “On Saturdays, we come to school. We learn what we usually learn on Mondays. I am happy because all my friends come to school.”
THE WHISTLER reports that despite the cancellation of the sit-at-home order by the IPOB, general activities on Mondays in the southeast region of the country have remained paralysed as unknown gunmen use Mondays to perpetrate their activities.