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By Gabriel Dike
Several pupils/students and even some teachers could not sing the new National Anthem at their various assemblies.
The use of the re-introduced National Anthem by the Tinubu administration is causing confusion as many of the pupils/students and young teachers went blanked when asked to recite the anthem at the school assembly.
To avoid embarrassment, some schools played the audio of the national anthem to enable pupils to follow and sing along.
Despite the use of audio, many pupils and young teachers could not sing along.
In some schools, many pupils unaware of the introduction of a new national anthem song the old one and teachers had to stop a few but many went on with the old one.
The Daily Sun gathered that in some public and private schools, the new national anthem was not sang for two or three days until after the pupils were taught.
A teacher in public school told Daily Sun that the anthem was not introduced to the students at the assembly because it was new and they didn’t know it.
He said: “On the first day of school after the anthem was reintroduced by the government, we agreed not to ask the pupils to sign it until they are taught. We tried it for the first time on Wednesday and afterward taught them in their various classes.
“We also gave them as an assignment to learn it from home. It is only the SS classes that have picked up. The young pupils are still struggling to sing the new anthem. Aside from the students, many teachers are also struggling to sing. The little kids are still singing the old anthem. With time, the pupils will pick up and sing it well.”
At a private school along Ijegun road, pupils were taught the new anthem at the assembly and it was given as an assignment to practice it at home.
One week after the reintroduction of the anthem, when Daily Sun asked some of the pupils after school to sing the new national anthem, they only sang the first stance.
An SS 11 student told Daily Sun that they were given one week to learn how to sing the new anthem and that “our principal said we will be called out to sing it at the assembly.”
On the streets, when the Daily Sun confronted some students going home to sing the new anthem, they could not.
The Proprietor of Legacy Academy, Idimu, Lagos, Deacon Lucky Osagie, said it would take some time for the students to know how to sing the new national anthem.
“In school, we didn’t sing the anthem for three days. I instructed the teachers to write it on the board, read it and practice the singing in the classrooms and ask the students to try singing it without looking at the board.
“My young teachers are struggling with the anthem. Some of the students are picking up. We tried it at the assembly thrice and we got a fair result. Hopefully in a month’s time, my students will master the new national anthem.
Osagie disclosed that some of the parents told him that they have forgotten about the anthem and can’t sing it of hand without going through a written text of it.
