Deejay Novelteach Innovations

VACANCY: FEMALE SEND SHADOW TEACHER

A family in Lokogoma, Abuja is seeking a female Shadow Teacher/Learning Support Assistant to support their autistic daughter, who is transitioning from a specialist educational setting into a mainstream school.

The ideal candidate should:

•⁠ ⁠Have experience working directly with children with Autism/SEND.
•⁠ ⁠Have training or experience in Special Education, Psychology, Education, Behavioural Therapy or a related field.
•⁠ ⁠Be patient, calm, observant and genuinely interested in supporting children's development.
•⁠ ⁠Be able to support classroom participation, communication, transitions, social interaction, routines and independence.
•⁠ ⁠Be willing to work closely with the class teacher, parents and the child's existing therapists.

Added Advantage

Experience in Behavioural Therapy/ABA will be highly advantageous.

Experience with Speech and Language support, Autism intervention or Occupational Therapy programmes will also be an advantage.

Work Schedule

Monday to Friday
7:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Salary

₦120,000 monthly

Location

Lokogoma, Abuja

Candidates who live in or around Lokogoma are strongly preferred.

Interested candidates should send their CV and a brief summary of their experience working with autistic children to:

Whatsapp Number 0912 493 8628

THE BEST SCHOOL MAY NOT BE THE RIGHT SCHOOL FOR YOUR CHILD

As September approaches and parents across Nigeria make final decisions about where their children will spend the next academic year, there is one question I would encourage every parent to ask.

“Is this the best school, or is this the right school for my child?”

They are not always the same thing.

A school can have outstanding examination results, excellent facilities, highly qualified teachers, strong discipline, impressive university placements and a respected name, yet still not be the right environment for a particular child.

I learnt this lesson from a parent some years ago.

She had two children in one of Nigeria's highly regarded schools. One of them had even been a head boy.

Then she brought her third child to the school where I was working.

The boy performed exceptionally well in the entrance assessment. He was articulate, intelligent, confident in conversation and clearly had a very high level of cognition.

I was naturally curious.

I asked the mother why she did not want him to join his siblings.

Her answer stayed with me.

She said, “He questions everything.”

She knew her son.

She knew that the highly structured environment that had worked wonderfully for his siblings might become a source of constant conflict for him.

He was not a bad child. He was simply a different child.

That distinction matters.

We have different kinds of children.

Some are naturally compliant. Some question authority.

Some are highly competitive. Some shut down when they feel compared.

Some will raise their hands even when they are unsure. Others know the answer but would rather remain silent than risk getting it wrong.

Some children thrive in a large, competitive school. Others need adults who know them personally.

Some need considerable structure. Others need room to explore, question and experiment.

Some are academically advanced when they arrive. Others arrive struggling.

And this is where I think parents and teachers need to rethink what we mean by a “good student”.

Consider the shy child entering Year 7.

She knows the answer but will not raise her hand because she is afraid of being wrong.

The teacher asks the question.

Silence.

Another child answers incorrectly and the class laughs.

She lowers her head further.

She learns a dangerous lesson:

“It is safer not to try.”

Now imagine a different classroom.

The teacher notices her.

She asks the question again.

The child hesitantly answers.

The answer is wrong.

The teacher says, “I can see how you got there. Let's think about it again.”

No humiliation.

No sarcasm.

No laughter.

The child learns something completely different:

“I can be wrong and still be safe.”

That child may eventually raise her hand.

Then she may volunteer for a presentation.

Then join a club.

Then participate in a debate.

Then discover that she can lead.

That is education too.

Parents, therefore, should ask schools more than their WAEC results and university admission statistics.

Ask:

How do you support a child who is shy?

What do you do when a child is afraid to speak?

How do you respond when a child questions an instruction respectfully?

How do you handle mistakes in the classroom?

What happens when a child performs poorly?

How do you support a child who is academically behind?

How do you identify a child who is present physically but withdrawn emotionally?

What does your learning-support system actually look like?

And perhaps the question I would ask most strongly is:

“What happens to the child who does not arrive here as the finished product?”

I have always believed that schools must be able to do more than polish children who are already performing exceptionally well.

Many years ago, one of my bosses said something that has remained with me.

He said that even if you admit students who score 100% in every subject in Year 7, they could still leave the school with 30%.

And you could admit students who enter with 20 or 30%, work with them properly, and watch them leave with 90 or 100%.

That is the power of teaching.

A child's entrance examination is a starting point.

It should never become a prophecy.

Over the years, I have taught children who started secondary school near the bottom of their classes.

Some struggled badly.

Then something happened.

A teacher reached them.

A particular subject suddenly made sense.

A mentor believed in them.

They experienced a small success.

Their confidence changed.

Their effort changed.

Their results changed.

Some eventually went on to university and graduated with First Class degrees.

I have had some of them return years later, sending me private messages saying:

“Mr J, thank you for believing in us.”

Those messages mean a great deal to a teacher.

Because sometimes the most powerful evidence of good teaching is not the student who entered at 95% and left at 98%.

It is the student who entered at 30% and eventually discovered that 30% was never the limit of what they could become.

So, parents, as you visit schools and make decisions for September, look beyond the reputation.

Look beyond the buildings.

Look beyond the trophies.

Look beyond the entrance examination.

Look at your child.

Who is this child?

How does this child learn?

What makes this child confident?

What makes this child withdraw?

Does this child need more structure or more freedom?

Does this child need competition or encouragement?

Does this child need specialist support?

Does this child need a school where teachers will challenge them?

Or does this child need a school where teachers will first help them believe that they can succeed?

And teachers, this conversation belongs to us too.

We must be careful about labelling children too early.

The “weak student” may simply be a student who has not yet found the right key.

The “quiet student” may have extraordinary ideas.

The “stubborn student” may be highly independent-minded.

The “slow learner” may simply need a different route to the same destination.

The “poor student” may become an exceptional graduate under the right teaching.

Children develop at different rates.

Our responsibility is to help them move.

Sometimes the movement is from 30% to 40%.

Then 40% to 55%.

Then 55% to 70%.

Then suddenly, something clicks.

And the child runs.

That is why I have become increasingly convinced that **school selection should be about fit, not prestige alone.**

The school that is perfect for one child may be completely wrong for another.

Even siblings may need different environments.

So before you ask:

“Is this one of the best schools in Nigeria?”

Ask the more important question:

“Is this the right school for my child?”

Because the greatest school is not necessarily the school with the most impressive results.

Sometimes, the greatest school is the one that takes the child who is still struggling, still finding their voice, still discovering their strengths, and helps that child become everything they are capable of becoming.

Parents, choose carefully.

Teachers, see deeply.

There is a child behind every score.

And sometimes, our greatest work begins with a child whose potential is not yet visible on the report sheet.

What do you think parents should look for when choosing a school beyond academic results and reputation?

Teachers, Go and Learn How Exams Are Marked

If you are a teacher , especially one teaching examination classes, there is one professional development opportunity I would encourage you to take seriously:

Go and learn how external examinations are marked.

At the moment, SSCE NECO marking coordination is taking place, and I know many teachers across the country are looking for opportunities to participate.

If you can get in, please go.

And if you cannot get in this year, keep asking questions and looking out for the next opportunity.

I have always considered external examination marking a form of professional development that teachers should pursue.

WAEC. NECO. IGCSE. GCSE. Other recognised external assessments.

They expose you to a side of education that you may not fully appreciate when you are only standing in front of your own classroom.

Your students write the examination. You should understand what happens after they submit their scripts.

When you participate in marking coordination, you begin to understand assessment from the examiner's perspective.

You sit with other subject specialists.

You study the marking scheme.

You look at sample or dummy scripts.

You discuss why a particular response receives a particular mark.

You listen to the chief examiner, principal examiner or team leader explain how the standard is to be applied.

You see good answers.

You see weak answers.

You see answers that look impressive but do not actually earn the marks.

You see answers that are short but precise enough to earn full marks.

You begin to understand what examiners are actually looking for.

That knowledge changes the way you teach.

And this is not peculiar to Nigeria.

International examination systems place enormous importance on examiner training and standardisation. Cambridge International, for example, requires examiners to undergo standardisation before marking live scripts and monitors their marking during the marking period to ensure that the mark scheme is being applied consistently.

That tells us something important.

Understanding assessment is part of being a good teacher.

Here are some of the professional benefits

1. You understand the examination standard better

You move beyond simply knowing the syllabus.

You begin to understand the standard of response expected from candidates.

2. You become better at interpreting questions

You begin to pay closer attention to command words, assessment objectives, question structure and the difference between knowing something and demonstrating it in an examination.

3. You teach students how to earn marks

This is a major difference.

Some students know the content but do not know how to present their knowledge in a way that satisfies the marking criteria.

Marking experience helps you identify that problem.

4. You identify recurring misconceptions

Imagine reading hundreds of responses to the same question.

You will quickly notice patterns.

You will see the mistakes candidates repeatedly make.

That information is extremely useful when you return to your classroom.

5. You improve your feedback to students

Instead of simply writing, "Explain better" or "Give more details," you become more precise about what a stronger response should contain.

6. You develop stronger assessment literacy

You begin to understand concepts such as standardisation, moderation, mark schemes, consistency, reliability, validity, grade boundaries and examiner judgement.

These are not merely examination terms.

They are part of serious educational practice.

7. You become a better question setter

After seeing how questions are answered and marked, you are likely to write better classroom assessments.

You begin to ask:

What exactly am I testing?

Is this question aligned with the learning objective?

Is the mark allocation reasonable?

What would distinguish a basic response from an excellent one?

8. You become better at preparing examination classes

You start preparing students for the actual demands of the assessment rather than simply teaching content and hoping they perform well.

9. You gain insight into examination technique

You see where candidates lose marks unnecessarily.

You see problems with working, presentation, terminology, structure, explanations and failure to respond to the exact demand of the question.

That experience can go straight back into your lessons.

10. You build professional credibility

If you are applying to a school and the interviewer asks whether you have marked WAEC, NECO or an international examination like IGCSE, being able to answer yes gives you another dimension of professional experience.

This can be particularly useful for teachers working with Year 9, Year 11 or Year 12 learners.

11. You develop professional networks

Marking centres bring together teachers from different schools, experienced examiners, team leaders and subject specialists.

You learn from people outside your immediate school environment.

12. You gain exposure to professional standards beyond your school

This is important.

Your current school may have a particular way of doing things.

External examination marking exposes you to a wider professional community.

You begin to compare practices.

You see what other teachers are doing.

You hear how experienced examiners think about assessment.

That exposure can be valuable.

13. You develop opportunities for future examiner roles

With experience, training and a strong professional record, you may become eligible for more advanced examining, team leadership, moderation or related assessment responsibilities.

International examination systems have clearly defined examiner, team leader, moderator and principal examiner roles, each carrying increasing levels of responsibility.

14. You develop confidence in assessment conversations

When school leaders, colleagues or parents discuss examination performance, you can contribute from a deeper understanding of how assessment actually works.

15. You can influence teaching beyond your own classroom

A teacher who understands external assessment can share that knowledge with colleagues.

That is how professional learning begins to spread through a school.

Now, let us talk about the money

I know what some teachers are thinking.

"Sir, have you seen how much they pay?"

Yes. I have. Seen it. Done it.

With local examinations such as WAEC and NECO, the financial compensation for marking may sometimes be underwhelming when you consider the time, transport, food and other demands involved.

That is a legitimate concern.

The money may not always make you excited.

But I want teachers to look at the opportunity from another angle.

The professional experience can be worth far more than the marking fee.

You are being given access to the assessment room.

You are seeing how scripts are evaluated.

You are learning from people who have examined thousands of candidates.

You are developing a skill that can strengthen your teaching and your professional profile.

Money cannot easily buy that experience.

So, if you can get the opportunity, please consider going.

It does not have to be every year.

You may have a demanding school.

You may be a class teacher.

You may be carrying administrative responsibilities.

Some teachers are so overwhelmed by administrative work that they barely have time to breathe during the academic year.

I understand that.

But once in a while, find a way.

Take a break from the routine.

Go and learn something different.

And if you cannot become an examiner yet, learn from the examiners

This is another area I want teachers to take seriously.

Read examiners' reports.

WAEC provides Chief Examiners' Reports that give feedback on candidates' performance and help schools prepare for subsequent examinations.

International examination bodies such as CIE also publish examiner reports and examples of candidate responses.

Cambridge, for instance, makes marking standards and examiner-related materials available to support teachers' understanding of what is expected from learners.

So, even if you do not get a seat at the marking centre this year, you can still learn from the people who were there.

Read the reports.

Look at common mistakes.

Study what candidates did well.

Study where they lost marks.

Then ask yourself:

What does this mean for my teaching?

That question is important.

Do not read an examiner's report simply because you are preparing students for an examination.

Read it because you want to become a better teacher.

School leaders, this is for you too

School owners, heads of school, principals, academic directors and heads of department should support this.

If your teachers have an opportunity to attend external examination marking or assessment training, look at how the school can make it possible.

Provide transportation where you can.

Arrange modest refreshments if teachers will be at a marking venue for long hours.

Adjust duties where necessary.

Allow them the time to participate.

And when they return, ask them to share what they learnt.

You may even make it part of your school's professional development plan.

Imagine having a Year 10 teacher who has experience marking WAEC or NECO.

Imagine having a Year 8 teacher who has participated in Junior NECO marking.

Imagine having IGCSE teachers who understand the standardisation process used by an international examination board.

The benefit does not remain with the individual teacher.

It can spread across departments and eventually across the whole school.

Teachers, make this personal

Do not wait for your school to make your professional development happen.

Your career is yours.

Your competence is yours.

Your professional reputation is yours.

Find out when marking exercises take place.

Find out how prospective examiners are recruited.

Ask experienced examiners how the process works.

Use the official channels where available. WAEC, for example, has an examiner portal through which prospective examiners can submit their details and check eligibility requirements.

If you get the opportunity to attend a coordination exercise, go prepared to learn.

Listen.

Observe.

Ask appropriate questions.

Study the sample scripts.

Pay attention to how the marking scheme is interpreted.

Then take what you have learnt back to your classroom.

Because ultimately, the real value of examination marking is not the number of scripts you marked.

It is the teacher you become after marking them.

Teachers, have you ever participated in WAEC, NECO, IGCSE or another external examination marking exercise? What did you learn from it?

And to school leaders, how does your school support teachers to gain external assessment and examination experience?

Would you rehire a teacher who left your school?

I have a simple answer, but the reason behind it is more complicated.

In this short video, I share my thoughts using football, a real workplace experience and an interesting biblical example.

More importantly, I ask a difficult question for school leaders:

When a good teacher leaves without telling you tye real reason, what does that tell us about our leadership?**ll

🎥 Watch the full video on YouTube and tell me where you stand.

Would you open the door again?

👍 Like | 💬 Comment | ↗️ Share | Follow for more conversations on education and leadership.

Deborah Ogeh - Johnson

Nigerian Teachers
Johnson Ibn Ozuoka

Would You Rehire a Teacher Who Left Your School? Would you rehire a former teacher who left your school without tell...

You scored 280 in JAMB. So how many admission points do you actually have?

This is worth understanding, especially now that Post-UTME and admission screening exercises are taking place across Nigerian universities.

Your JAMB score is not necessarily your admission aggregate.

Take the UNILAG example shown in the attached image.

Under its published 2025/2026 assessment model:

JAMB = 50%
O'Level = 20%
Post-UTME = 30%

A candidate who scores 280/400 in JAMB would contribute 35 points to the aggregate under that model.

Add 18/20 from O'Level and 24/30 from Post-UTME, and the candidate gets:

35 + 18 + 24 = 77/100.

So, 280 in JAMB does not mean 280 admission points.

And this is where things get interesting.

Universities do not all use the same admission process.

UNIJOS, UNILAG, UI, UNN, Babcock and Covenant, for example, have different eligibility requirements and screening arrangements.

The course also matters. Medicine, Pharmacy, Engineering, Law and other competitive programmes may have requirements that differ from other courses within the same university.

Then there is JAMB CAPS, where the admission process is eventually processed and candidates can view and respond to provisional offers.

So during this admission season, don't ask only:

"What did you score in JAMB?"

Ask:

What university?
What course?
What are the O'Level requirements?
Is there Post-UTME or screening?
How is the final aggregate calculated?
What is the competitiveness of the course?

Because meeting the minimum requirement is not the same as securing admission.

If you are a parent, candidate, teacher or school counsellor, tell me:

Which university and course are you currently considering?

Drop it in the comments.

I will pick the questions from the comments and explain the current admission requirements, screening process and, where the university publishes it, how the aggregate is calculated.

Admission season is here. Let's get the information right.


Johnson Ibn Ozuoka

The biases we carry without knowing

I woke up this morning and, given that we are on holiday, decided to go jogging around the estate.

Then I saw a female keke driver.

She drove past me with passengers, and I caught myself staring for a few seconds.

Then the word “bias” struck my subconscious.

Why did I look twice?

Where I come from in Delta State, it is common to see women owning and riding motorcycles. When I travel to the village, I hardly notice it.

But here in Abuja, a woman riding a motorcycle still catches my attention.

I am now accustomed to female Uber drivers. Of course I have worked under many female heads in the past and I the work relationship was one that I grew the most professionally in.

And then I thought:

Besides the female kere driver I encountered this morning, what else do I carry in my mind that I have never stopped to question?

That thought took me back over a decade to some of my own experiences.

I used to assume that children raised, especially by single mothers, were more likely to “turn out badly”. Whenever a child was repeatedly misbehaving, I would sometimes unconsciously try to find out whether the child was being raised in a single-parent home.

Then I enrolled in a Child Psychology and Family Therapy course.

My eyes opened. Did they open!

I began to understand that family structure alone does not tell the story of a child. There are questions of parenting, attachment, stability, socioeconomic circumstances, trauma, relationships and support systems.

I was honestly unhappy with my former self.

I had another bias.

When a child struggled academically despite all the teaching and support we provided, I sometimes thought, “This child is just an olodo.”

Then I encountered SEND more deeply.

Autism.

Dyslexia.

Dysgraphia.

ADD.

ADHD.

Learning Disability, among others.

Different processing and learning needs.

Then I watched Like Stars on Earth.

I realised that sometimes the child we call lazy, unserious, stubborn or unintelligent is a child whose learning needs we have simply failed to understand.

The SEND experience broke me as it took me back to many students in the past whom I would have helped better if only In knew better.

And I am still learning to this day. Life long learning has been the mission since.

I have heard teachers say when a girl misbehaves, “Don't you know you are a girl?”

Then a boy displays similar behaviour and we hear, “Boys will be boys.”

I have seen a 12-year-old girl wash clothes for herself and her siblings, do much of the cooking and carry significant responsibilities at home while her brothers sit in the living room watching television or playing games video games.

“She is being trained for her future husband.”

Then that same girl comes to school with less time and energy for study, yet we judge her academic performance without considering the different demands placed on her.

This is not a battle between boys and girls.

It is a question of fairness and the assumptions we make about children.

And bias does not stop at gender.

It appears in the careers we consider suitable for men and women.

The courses we encourage boys and girls to study.

The occupations we respect.

The religions we understand or misunderstand.

The ethnic groups we attach certain characteristics to.

The accents we associate with intelligence.

The schools we assume produce better children.

The social class we associate with ability.

The child who speaks confidently and is called intelligent.

The child who speaks too much and is called troublesome.

The quiet child who is assumed to be well behaved.

The child who struggles academically and is labelled lazy.

The child with a disability whose potential is quietly lowered before they have even had the chance to show us what they can do.

The child from a wealthy family who is assumed to have everything going for them.

The child from a struggling home who is assumed to have limited potential.

Sometimes these assumptions are so deeply embedded in our culture that we no longer recognise them as assumptions.

We simply call them “the way things are.”

That is where the problem lies.

Best practice in education increasingly asks us to examine these assumptions, use evidence, understand individual learners, maintain high expectations and build inclusive systems that give children genuine opportunities to succeed.

For us in Nigeria and across Africa, this is particularly important.

Our traditions have given us many things worth preserving. Respect for elders. Community. Responsibility. Family. Hard work. Collective care.

But tradition should not become an excuse for refusing to examine what no longer serves the child.

A child's future should not be limited by an assumption an adult has never bothered to question.

I am not writing this as someone who has conquered bias.

Far from it.

I am writing as someone who has discovered some of his own.

Sometimes education exposed them. Yes, enlightenment does!

Sometimes experience exposed them.

Sometimes a 12-year-old learner exposed them.

And sometimes, apparently, a female keke driver on my morning jog can expose one too.

So perhaps this is my TGIF question:

What biases do you carry?

Which ones have you discovered in yourself?

Which ones are you still working on?

And what biases do you see being expressed around children in our homes, schools and communities?

Maybe the goal is not to pretend that we have no biases.

Maybe the goal is to become sufficiently self-aware to notice them, question them and evolve beyond them.

I am working on mine.

I hope you are working on yours too.

Class Placement Is an Instructional Decision: Rethinking How Schools Build Learning Communities

Before you place students in next year's classes, what are you actually considering?

The school term may have ended, but for many school leaders, some of the most important work for the new academic year is already taking place.

Class placement.

Year 2 becomes Year 3.

Year 4 becomes Year 5.

Year 7 becomes Year 8.

A year group that had two arms may become three because of new admissions.

At first glance, class placement can look like a simple administrative exercise.

Move some names here.

Move some names there.

Keep some friendships together.

Separate a few students.

Make sure the numbers are equal.

But I think class placement deserves much more thought than that.

Class composition is an instructional decision.

The students we put together will spend hundreds of hours learning together. Their relationships will influence one another. Their academic profiles will shape the pace and depth of instruction. Their behaviour will affect the teacher's ability to teach. Their individual learning needs will determine how much support some students require.

So I have been thinking about a question that many schools will probably be dealing with during this break:

How should we decide which students should learn together next year?

I have seen different approaches.

Some schools retain existing classes almost completely.

The students remain together because they have already settled into those groups.

There is stability, familiarity and continuity.

Other schools deliberately reorganise the classes at the end of the year.

Students are redistributed across the available arms based on a range of factors.

I think there is value in both approaches.

The real question is whether we are making the decision deliberately or simply because it is easier to leave things as they are.

Start with academic balance

If Year 5 is going to have three arms, I would not want one class to contain most of the strongest academic performers while another contains a disproportionate number of students requiring significant academic intervention.

This does not mean creating three identical classes.

It means looking at the overall academic profile.

Who are the students who consistently demonstrate strong independent learning?

Who needs additional support in Mathematics?

Who struggles with literacy?

Who performs well academically but requires close supervision to remain engaged?

Who has made significant progress and may flourish with a different peer group?

Who could provide positive academic leadership to others?

The goal is to create classes in which teachers can teach effectively while still providing appropriate challenge and support.

Then consider SEND and learning support

This is an area that deserves much more attention in class placement discussions.

Imagine three classes of 20 students.

Class A has one learner receiving substantial learning support.

Class B has two.

Class C has six.

On paper, all three classes have 20 students.

In practice, they are very different classrooms.

The issue is not that students with SEND should be separated.

Quite the opposite.

Inclusive education means ensuring that students with additional needs participate meaningfully in the life of the school.

But inclusion also requires us to think carefully about how support needs are distributed.

If most of the students requiring intensive support are placed in one class, that teacher may be carrying a significantly greater instructional and pastoral load than colleagues teaching the other classes.

That has consequences for everyone.

So I would want schools to consider not only the number of students with SEND or learning support needs, but also the nature and intensity of those needs.

Two students requiring occasional classroom adjustments are not necessarily equivalent to two students requiring sustained individualised support.

That distinction matters.

Academic strength matters too

The same principle applies to academic composition.

A class with a large concentration of students requiring intensive intervention may demand considerably more from its teacher than a class with a high proportion of independent learners.

This is why I would resist the temptation to look only at the number of students in each arm.

Twenty students are not always twenty students.

The instructional demand of those twenty students can be very different.

Behavioural composition matters

A student who struggles with behaviour in isolation may behave very differently when placed with certain peers.

Sometimes the issue is not one child.

It is the combination.

Two students may reinforce each other's poor choices.

Three students may create a social group that becomes difficult for the teacher to manage.

A particular friendship may be perfectly healthy outside the classroom but become a constant source of distraction during lessons.

This is why I would be interested in the observations of the teachers who have worked with these students throughout the year.

Not because teachers should choose their future classes.

They should not.

The teachers may not even know which classes they will become form teachers of next year.

Instead, outgoing teachers should provide professional evidence about the students they already know.

For example, the Year 4 teachers could be asked to review the Year 4 students and suggest an ideal distribution for Year 5.

They might identify:

Students who work particularly well together.
Students whose friendship has supported learning.
Students whose friendship consistently disrupts learning.
Students who should probably not remain together.
Students who need a new peer environment.
Students who positively influence others.
Students who tend to follow certain peers.
Students who require considerable teacher prompting.
Students who thrive when surrounded by independent learners.
Students who may need a fresh start.
That is very different from asking:

"Which students do you want in your class?"

The former is professional observation.

The latter can easily become preference.

Gender may also form part of the picture

There may be good reasons to look at gender distribution across classes.

But I would be careful about turning gender into a simplistic formula.

The actual behavioural and learning patterns of the children matter more than assumptions about boys and girls.

Sometimes two students of the same gender create a difficult dynamic.

Sometimes a boy and a girl have a friendship that becomes a major distraction.

Sometimes a mixed-gender friendship is entirely positive.

The question should therefore be about the observed learning environment, rather than stereotypes.

What about religion, ethnicity and region?

This is where the conversation becomes more delicate, particularly in Nigeria.

Some schools deliberately consider religious, ethnic or regional representation when forming classes because they want children to interact across differences and avoid a situation where one class becomes socially homogeneous.

I understand the thinking.

A school should be a place where children learn alongside people from different backgrounds.

However, I would be cautious about using a child's religion, ethnicity or region as a mechanism for deciding who should or should not be placed together.

The purpose of class placement should remain educational.

We should create inclusive classrooms where diversity is normal, rather than treating children's identities as variables to be mathematically distributed.

There is a difference between monitoring whether our classrooms are inclusive and deliberately engineering children's placement based on identity.

That distinction deserves serious thought.

There is another practice I think schools should take more seriously: transition reports

This becomes particularly important in schools where Early Years, Primary and Secondary operate within the same school.

Sometimes we say a child has "moved to secondary school" when, institutionally, the child has simply moved from one section of the same school to another.

The child is still ours.

The institutional knowledge should therefore travel with the child.

I have observed over time that it can be very useful for the Year 6 teachers, together with the Head of Primary, to prepare a formal transition report for every child moving into secondary school.

Not merely a report card.

A proper transition document.

It should capture the child's academic profile, learning strengths, areas requiring intervention, behavioural patterns, pastoral considerations and significant disciplinary history.

Where appropriate, it should also record serious incidents that required formal intervention, including cases where parents were invited to school or where a disciplinary committee became involved.

The purpose is not to label a child.

It is to give the receiving section enough institutional memory to support the child properly.

This becomes particularly important when a student later gets into serious trouble in secondary school.

A parent may understandably say:

"My child has never behaved like this before. It only started after he entered secondary school."

Sometimes that may genuinely be true.

But sometimes it is not.

Without proper transition records, the secondary school may have no reliable history against which to understand the new incident.

A student who had repeated behavioural concerns in Year 4, had already received several interventions, or had previously been suspended should not arrive in Year 7 with the institutional memory wiped clean.

The secondary school should know the history.

Not so that the child is permanently judged by it.

Rather, so that the school can respond intelligently.

There is a difference between labelling a child and understanding a child's history.

Good records help us do the latter.

They also protect teachers.

They protect school leadership.

They protect parents.

Most importantly, they help us make decisions based on evidence rather than competing versions of events.

This is where something interesting is happening nationally in Nigeria

The Federal Government has introduced the Learner Identification Number, LIN, as a permanent and traceable education identity for learners.

According to the Federal Ministry of Information and National Orientation, the LIN is designed to support continuity of learner records across educational levels and even when a learner transfers between schools. The current system captures information within the identifier relating to the state, LGA, school and individual learner code. The wider national education data system is also intended to support tracking of academic progression, learning gaps, dropouts and targeted interventions. (Ministry of Information)

That immediately raises an interesting question for school leaders.

What should a learner's digital educational identity eventually tell the next school?

At the moment, I would not describe the LIN itself as a complete learner profile.

It is an identification and continuity mechanism.

But imagine where a properly governed national learner record could eventually take us.

A learner transfers from School A to School B.

With authorised access, School B should ideally be able to verify the learner's educational history rather than begin completely from zero.

Academic progression.

Previous schools.

Relevant assessment information.

Learning support needs.

Appropriate SEND information.

Interventions that have been provided.

Attendance patterns.

Serious behavioural concerns.

Major disciplinary interventions.

Relevant transition information.

Perhaps even a record of demonstrated strengths and areas requiring support.

I am not suggesting that every teacher should have unrestricted access to every piece of information about a child.

That would raise serious questions about privacy, data protection, confidentiality and the risk of a child being permanently defined by their past.

Quite the opposite.

The more powerful the data system becomes, the stronger the governance around access and use must become.

But if Nigeria is building a national learner identity, perhaps the long-term conversation should go beyond identifying who the learner is.

Perhaps we should also ask how verified educational information can help ensure that the learner is properly supported when they move.

Imagine a child moving from one school to another in Year 7.

Instead of the receiving school knowing only the child's name, age, previous school and entrance examination score, there could eventually be a secure, authorised transition record that gives the school a much richer picture of the learner.

That could make class placement more objective.

It could help schools identify appropriate learning support.

It could reduce the loss of institutional memory when children transfer.

It could help teachers understand the learner before problems emerge.

And it could make the transition between schools much more than a change of uniform and classroom.

But we must get the balance right.

Data should inform professional judgement, not replace it.

A child's LIN should never become a label.

A previous disciplinary incident should not permanently define a learner.

A low assessment score should not determine a child's future.

A SEND record should not become a reason for exclusion.

The purpose of better data should be better decisions and better support.

The same principle applies to teacher-parent relationships

Suppose a parent and a particular teacher already have a strained relationship.

The child may have done nothing wrong.

The teacher may have done nothing wrong.

But the relationship between the adults may already be difficult.

If that teacher is then appointed as the child's form teacher and becomes the family's primary point of contact throughout the year, the situation could become unnecessarily difficult.

I would not advocate removing every child from a teacher because a parent has previously complained.

That would create another set of problems.

But where there is a documented and significant relationship issue, school leadership should at least be aware of it when making form-teacher allocations.

Sometimes a simple change in form-teacher assignment can prevent an avoidable problem.

I would also consider students who need a fresh start

There are children who have spent an entire year carrying a particular reputation.

"The noisy one."

"The difficult one."

"The weak student."

"The child who always follows X."

"The one who is always in trouble."

Sometimes changing the peer group changes the story.

A new class can give a child an opportunity to establish a different identity.

That does not mean ignoring previous behaviour.

It means recognising that children develop and that schools should sometimes create conditions that allow them to reset.

New admissions should also be considered

If a year group expands from two arms to three, new students should not simply be placed wherever there happens to be space.

Their integration matters.

We should think about which existing peer groups are likely to help them settle.

We should also avoid creating a class that becomes the unofficial "new students' class."

Integration should happen across the year group.

So what should the process look like?

Personally, I would separate teacher input from management decision-making.

The outgoing teachers provide the evidence.

Management reviews the evidence.

Academic records are considered.

SEND and learning support information is considered.

Behaviour records are considered.

Peer relationships are considered.

Pastoral information is considered.

Relevant transition information is considered.

Where available and appropriately governed, verified learner data can add another layer of evidence.

The overall instructional demand of each proposed class is examined.

Then management makes the final placement decision.

I would even recommend that schools produce a simple Class Composition Matrix before finalising the lists.

FactorClass AClass BClass CHigh academic performers676Students requiring academic intervention545Significant behaviour concerns222SEND / intensive learning support222Moderate learning support332Positive peer leaders444Students requiring close supervision323New students333

The numbers here are illustrative.

The point is to force us to look beyond whether each class has the same number of students.

And perhaps there is a bigger principle here

A child's movement from one year group to another should not result in the school losing what it already knows about that child.

A child's movement from Primary to Secondary should not erase their history.

A change in class should not erase their strengths, needs, relationships or previous interventions.

And a change in form teacher should not mean starting the child from zero.

Likewise, a child transferring from one school to another should not have to rebuild their entire educational story from scratch if the education system can securely and appropriately carry relevant information forward.

Schools need institutional memory.

And perhaps Nigeria is now beginning to build the infrastructure for that memory at national level through the LIN and the wider digital education management system.

The question for school leaders is what we will do with that opportunity.

Good schools do not merely keep records because policy requires them.

They keep useful records because those records help the next teacher make better decisions.

Ultimately, I think class placement is an instructional leadership decision.

It should not be driven by convenience.

It should not be driven by teacher preference.

It should not be driven entirely by friendship.

It should not be driven entirely by academic performance.

And it certainly should not become a mechanism for favouritism or discrimination.

It should be a carefully considered decision based on the best available evidence about the children.

The outgoing teachers know things about these students that may not appear on a report card.

The data tells us other things.

The SEND team may see needs that the class teacher does not fully see.

The pastoral team may know about relationships.

The Head of Primary may hold important institutional history.

The receiving secondary team needs that history.

A national learner identity may eventually provide another layer of verified continuity when children move between schools.

School leadership sees the wider picture.

Bringing those perspectives together is where the real work lies.

Perhaps the most useful question is therefore not:

"Which students should be in which class?"

It is:

"What combination of students will give each class the best reasonable conditions for learning, belonging, behaviour, inclusion and teacher effectiveness next year?"

And when a child moves from one school to another:

"What does the receiving school need to know, responsibly and lawfully, to give this learner the right start?"

Those are much harder questions.

But perhaps they are the right ones.

I would genuinely like to hear from school leaders, teachers and parents.

How does your school handle class placement at the end of the academic year?

Do you retain existing classes or deliberately reshuffle students?

Do you consult the teachers who taught the students in the outgoing year?

How do you account for SEND and learning support needs?

How do you balance academic strengths?

Do you deliberately separate certain peer relationships?

Does your school prepare formal transition reports when students move from Primary to Secondary within the same institution?

How much behavioural and disciplinary history should follow a child into the next section?

If a learner transfers to another school, what information should the receiving school legitimately have access to?

And now that Nigeria has introduced the Learner Identification Number, what would you want a secure national learner record to make possible for schools, teachers and learners?

What does good class placement look like in your school?

Read the Federal Government's announcement on the Learner Identification Number; https://fmino.gov.ng/fg-launches-first-ever-nationwide-learner-identification-number-to-transform-education-system/