Community Senior Grammar School
| credits: Folashade Adebayo
Parents
who have had to pay unauthorised levies to the management of some
public schools in Lagos have cried out to the state government for
intervention.
The parents, who are alleging that
principals of the affected schools forced them to pay N1,500 before they
could collect the report cards of their children, are asking the state
Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, to stop the schools from further
extorting money from them in the name of the state government.
It was learnt that the money was meant for the purchase of a school bus.
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One
of the parents, Mrs. Kike Anibaba (not real name), alleged that her
son, who is a pupil of Community Senior Grammar School, Aguda, Surulere,
paid N1,500 on Monday to his class teacher on the instruction of the
school principal.
She also alleged that the school ran a poultry where chickens were sold to members of the public.
“I had to borrow the money to pay on
Monday. My son who was in SS1 paid the money to his class teacher before
he was given his report card. They were initially asked to come with
the money on August 20 but many parents could not pay up. Imagine
collecting N1,500 per pupil. There are 78 pupils in my son’s class
alone.
“A lot is happening in government
schools and I am bitter about it. Did the pupils ask for a school bus?
We even had to pay another N100 to collect the report card. Why? This
particular school also charges N2,500 for customised uniforms. We are
forced to buy from them. The times are hard and most of us enrolled our
children in government schools because we could not afford private
schools. Why are they extorting money from us in the name of government?
The school has a poultry within its premises and the principal is
always saying it is for Biology practical,” she said.
Calling on Ambode to step into the
matter, Anibaba said the principal of the senior school, whom she
identified only as a woman, had frustrated efforts of the parents to
challenge her.
Another parent, who spoke to our
correspondent on condition of anonymity, said she had to struggle to get
the money when her daughter said she might not be allowed to resume
with other pupils later this month.
“This idea of a school bus is strange.
But I had to give my daughter the money though I budgeted it for
something else. This is supposed to be a low-cost school and I don’t
know the type of bus they want to buy. My own grouse is that the money
is simply too much. We also attended public schools. We did not have a
school bus in our time because it was not a priority. Do you know how
many pupils are in a class and the entire senior school by extension?
This is fraudulent and smells of corruption,” said the parent.
Our correspondent, who visited the
school on Wednesday, established that pupils indeed pay the amount
before they could collect their report cards. On the pretext of being
the guardian to one of the pupils, this reporter met a teacher,
identified as Mr. Bello, but was told to wait for one Mrs. Macauley who
is in charge of payment.
Macauley, however, denied that the school birthed the idea when confronted on the issue.
“It was a decision taken during one of
the parents-teachers meeting. The Junior School has a school bus and we
teachers used to drive the pupils to events and competitions. There was a
time we had to take 40 pupils to an event and we were running up and
down.
“The parents saw this and decided, on
their own, to donate N1,500 per pupil to enable us to buy a school bus. A
committee of parents was even set up to that effect. The school did not
force them,” she said.
The teacher, who declined to provide the contact of the PTA chairman, also denied that the school was running a poultry.
“The Lagos State Government is trying
but it cannot provide everything. The government donated 200 birds to
the school. We did not have computers and projectors until the state
government provided them. But nowadays, parents see the need to
intervene,” she said.
However, findings by our correspondent
showed that the school many not be alone. A self-employed man, Mr. Olu
Benard (not real name), whose son attends the Lagos Progressive Junior
Secondary School, also in the Surulere area of the state, told our
correspondent on Wednesday that the principal also charged N1,500 for
furniture given to the school by the state government free of charge.
Pleading on behalf of other parents,
Benard asked Ambode to appoint supervisors whose duties would be to
periodically monitor public schools in the state.
He said the school was already giving
the government a bad name because theywere told that the state
government directed them to collect the money.
There were no teachers in the premises
when our correspondent visited the school on Wednesday but the security
man asked her to come back in order to pay for the furniture.
Speaking to our correspondent on
Thursday, a source in the Ministry of Information said while the PTA
could make its own arrangements, the school was not expected to compel
any parent to pay.
“It is not supposed to be a fixed charge
or tied to report card collection even if the PTA arrangement is true.
Parents should have been allowed to donate anything they have,” said the
source.
However, the Public Relations Officer of
the ministry, Mr. Jide Lawal, told our correspondent on Thursday that
necessary measures would be taken against any errant official.
“We are going to investigate and will
take disciplinary actions against any teacher or principal found
culpable. We will also take necessary measures to forestall a
recurrence,” he said.
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04:51
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