Spend time, monitor wards’ activities during mid-term break, NAPTAN tells parents

National Parents Teachers Association of Nigeria (NAPTAN) has called on parents to adjust their programmes to enable them to monitor activities of their wards during the weeklong mid-term break.

NAPTAN’s Deputy Chairman, Mr Adeolu Ogunbanjo, gave the advice in an interview with our correspondent on Saturday in Lagos, saying children’s wrong use of the internet should be checked.

Our correspondent reports that the Lagos State Government, Ministry of Education, Office of Education Quality Assurance approved a weeklong mid-term break for private and public nursery, primary and secondary schools in the state.

According to the State’s Education harmonised academic calendar for Year 2022/2023 session, the five days mid-term break will hold from Oct. 24 to Oct. 28, while the second half of the term will begin on Oct. 31 and end Dec. 18.

Ogunbanjo said that schools must have given the students/pupils assignments to keep them academically busy during the break,

He advised parents or home teachers to guide them accordingly.

“Students are going to spend five good days at home in compliance with the state education academic calendar, therefore, parents and caregivers must be security conscious over their wards.

“We must warn them against rough play, to avoid injuries or accident and most importantly monitor what they do, kind of games they watch/play on the Internet and check their excesses.

“Some of the children, depending on their classes anyway, might have cause to use the internet for their assignment, they must not be left alone, rather, should be under the parents watch,” he added.

The NAPTAN deputy chairman described the weeklong mid-term break as a development which would go a long way to make students to approach the academics at their convenience.

According to him, the short break will create the needed opportunity for teachers and management staff of schools to rest and get refreshed ahead of the send half of the academic session.

He emphasised that parents should take the advantage to spend quality time with their children and keep them away from antisocial behaviour.