By NewsBits
The Enugu State government has suspended all school fees and levies from the junior secondary school (JSS) one to three.
The government, in a letter by the Secretary to the State Government, Prof Chidiebere Onyia, to the Chairman Post-Primary School Management Board Enugu, said the suspension was necessitated by the investigation into illegal collection of schools fees from junior secondary school students in the state.
“The Enugu State Government hereby suspends all fees/levies from junior secondary schools (JSS1-JSS3) in all public schools in Enugu State today February 2, 2024. This suspension is necessitated by the investigation into the illegal collection of school fees from junior secondary school students in all public schools in Enugu State.
“Please be guided accordingly,” the letter reads.
Findings revealed that the State Post-Primary School Management Board (PPSMB) had been inundated with petitions from parents and guardians on the alleged imposition of illegal fees and levies by principals of government-owned secondary schools across the state.
An official of the board, who pleaded for anonymity because he was not authorised to speak on the matter, told our correspondent that the extortion of students and parents was more rampant in schools in the rural parts of the state from where it was more difficult for parents to lodge their complaints at the board’s three zonal offices or the headquarters in Enugu.
“In one case reported by the secretary of the School Based Management Committee in a secondary school in Anini, it was alleged that the principal charged arbitrary levies based on his assessment of the financial status of a student’s parent or guardian”, he said.
He commended the state government for the intervention, stating that illegal school fees and levies were making mockery of the government’s free education policy from primary one to junior secondary school three.
