Stakeholders in the education
sector have criticised some parents for frequently changing the schools of their children and wards.
They contended that a frequent change of schools usually created some inconsistencies in the children, which in turn, affected their academics negatively.
The stakeholders spoke in interviews with newsmen on Thursday in Lagos.
Chairman, Counselling Association of Nigeria (CASSON), Prof. Ayodeji Badejo, Lagos Chapter, said that some parents allowed their economic status to influence the choice of schools for their children.
She said that as some parents improved their social standing, the choice of schools for their children and wards changed since they now had more resources to devote to their education.
“Whenever some parents feel they now have more money to spend on the education of their children, they usually moved  them from their current schools to more expensive ones,’’ she said.
Badejo said that some parents changed the schools of their children to boost their image and enable them to be able to rub shoulders with the rich in society.
“Sometimes, some parents struggle to change the schools of their children, to enable them to interact with children of the rich in the society, even if it was not ordinarily convenient for them.
“A friend of mine put her child in a N4.5 million school, in order for her child be able to mix with kids from rich families.’’ she recalled.
Badejo said that insecurity in some schools could also influence some parents to change the schools of their children, to prevent such children from getting involved in any unexpected crisis.
“When there is no assurance of safety for the children or standards begin to deteriorate, a parent may be compelled to change the schools of his children/wards, “ she said.
In his reaction, a Psychologist, Dr Aig Esekhade, said that since parents were constantly in search of qualitative education for their wards, they would only want them to attend schools with qualified teachers.
“As soon as a parent notices a decline in the quality of education given to his children, the issue of change definitely sets in, “ he said.
Esekhade said that the non-implementation of an appropriate curriculum by some schools was another deterrent to keeping children in any particular school.
The proprietor of Patrician School, Ijegamo, Mr Martins Nwabuwa, recalled that a woman took her five children to four different schools in two sessions, because of lack of money.
“Some mothers even move their children from one school to another because of financial considerations.
“When they are unable to pay school fees at the end of term, they may prefer to change them to another school which charges lower fees,” he said.
In order to avoid this, Mr Patrick Ezebinagu, the Proprietor of Holy Family School, Ikotun, suggested that the proprietors of private schools should complement each other by investigating the cases of debtors, whenever parents sought to change their children’s schools.
“Some of these parents do not care about the damage done to their children’s education by moving them from one school to another.
“The schools can assist themselves by having a network of information because the frequent changing of schools affects the concentration of the children,” he added.