Some parents of students in the Nigerian Federal Government Secondary Schools popularly known as Unity Schools has commended the Federal Government, for its decision to cancel development levies for new students by the Parents Teachers Association (PTA) and pegging of all dues at five thousand naira (N5, 000) per term.
The parents who spoke in their individual capacities over the weekend also described those who are calling for the reversal of the federal government’s decision as those profiteering from these funds meant to better the welfare of the students and as such they are enemies of the PTA.
The parents who are mostly from King’s College Lagos, and spoke under the condition of anonymity (for the fear of their children being victimised) declared that over the years the parents have been groaning from the pains of making this payments but worse still have not seen a commensurate impact on the development of the students socially and academically.
The parents affirm that the 5,000 levy should be adequate for the PTA to run the activities expected of them given that the leadership of the association carries out its duties transparently and be accountable to parents whom it represents.
Recently, the Federal Government through its Ministry of Education recently banned the collection of development levies by Parents Teachers Associations (PTA) in the 104 Unity Colleges across the country. According to a statement signed by Bem Goong, deputy director, press, in the ministry of education, this is in order to arrest the shocking trend where development levies imposed on parents by PTAs are becoming higher than the school fees charged by government which established the unity schools. Therefore, no PTA of any Unity College is allowed to initiate any development project in any of the unity colleges without the express or written authorisation of the Federal Ministry of Education.
According to the statement, the ministry was very particular about the case of the King’s College Lagos and Federal Science and Technical College, Yaba, Lagos. It said that in these schools, fees charged for JSS1 in the first term was N69, 400 while the PTA collection was N70, 000 at Kings and N74, 000 at Yaba. This brings the total paid by parents in these two schools to N139, 400 and N143, 400 respectively. With the ban on development levies and pegging of levy at a maximum of N5, 000, parents of JSS1 in these two schools will now pay N88, 000.
At a recent forum the Kings College, Lagos’ PTA Chairperson, Oriakhi Emmanuel, who has being in the office for 5 years and refused to conduct another election in the stated the monthly expenditure of the PTA to be 3.8millon naira which represents payments to teachers, cooks, security and other items it covers, we say then that the PTA levy at 5,000 is adequate to cover these salaries and few other activities.
The parents unanimous suggested that the PTA should be all inclusive and carry along the parents whose interest they were elected to protect, if there is need for the levy to be more than what is been pegged. The parents agree that these dues should reflect the reality of the economy and budget be drawn and discussed before payment impositions are made.
Meanwhile, in apparent reference to a letter purportedly written and published by the Nation newspaper by the immediate past principal of King’s College, Lagos, Dele Olapeju; on September 16, 2016, decrying the government’s decision, the parents said that, the former principal was only trying to protect his pipeline, as he profited from the PTA levy in 2014 when a car worth 3million naira was presented as a gift to him on retirement. The same former principal was presented with some items by some parents, to alleviate the condition of the school but the items cannot be accounted for.
“It is unfortunate that while the government is making efforts to make education affordable as a weapon for breaking the vicious cycle of poverty, some people are positioning to frustrate it. It is a fact that this decision came at the right time, therefore the public should be wary of the personality and antecedence of the individuals that are calling for the reversal of the decision.” They stated.
However, the parents also declared that it is high time the Federal Government fulfilled its promise of free education, and should take up its responsibility of adequate funding of the Unity Schools.
NB: Attached below are some of account breakdown of the Kings College, Lagos PTA yearly expenditure, items captured are incredibly infuriating:
Such as;-Donations to stakeholders, Travel and hotel payments, -Water reticulation done yearly. And the obvious decline in income despite increase in number of students etc.