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Parents Protest As Catholic School, Others Insist On Collecting Fee For Third Term Cancelled By State Govt
By Adekunle Badmus
Parents in some Private schools in Ogun state are set for confrontation with the management of some schools in the state for what they described as “trying place unnecessary burden on them particularly when they are reeling from the negative effects of the Coronavirus pandemic”.
Parents of wards in Excel Kiddies Foundation and Sacred Heart College both located in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital have been protesting the decision of the schools to charge them for third term of last session even when schools were on recess due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
Incidentally, Sacred Heart is run by the Catholic Christian Church.
Education institutions in Nigeria from the Primary school level to Tertiary level have been forced to shut down since April as the CoronaVirus pandemic ravaged the country.
This was when students in Primary and Secondary Schools were writing second term examinations.
In the wake of the spread of the virus in the various parts of the country, the Federal Government even locked down the country to curtail and contain the spread of the virus.
However, with the country now experiencing reduction in the spread of the virus, schools are being reopened by the various state governments.
The Ogun State Government has not only reopened schools in the state but has also offered the students automatic promotion to the next class, meaning the third term of last session has been cancelled.
Thus, parents whose children attend Private Primary and Secondary Schools in the state are expected to pay for the first tern of the new session.
However, for parents whose children attend Excel Kiddies Foundation and Sacred Heart College, it was a rude shock to them when the schools’ authorities insisted they must pay for the third term that never took place.
“When we asked the reason for this, they stated that they organised virtual lectures for students during the lockdown which stood in for the third term,” a parent whose kids attend Excel Kiddies Foundations said.
“When I paid for the first term, they gave me receipt for third term insisting I must pay for the new term,” another parent said.
A parent whose children attend Sacred Heart College and Excel Kiddies Foundation said, even when the parents pleaded for rebate on the so-called third term fee, the schools refused insisting that they must pay in full.
“Imagine how much I’m going to pay having children in both schools at this Coronavirus period, paying for two terms at a go,” he lamented.
Another bizarre angle added to it was the alleged threat by the managements of the affected schools to arrest parents who refused to pay for the disputed third term.
“The schools are claiming that they have spent money to organise the virtual lectures for our wards but do they know the amount we spent in buying data for our children to attend the virtual class?
“Moreover do they want to tell us that all students of the schools attend the virtual class? This is grossly inhuman,” another parent whose child attends Sacred Heart College said.
The parents were unanimous in their submission that there was no agreement with schools’ authorities that they will pay for a full term if their wards attend the virtual lectures.
“There was no such agreement with them. They are just being callous,” they said.
Another Private school in Abeokuta, Taidob Secondary School was mild in its demand: parents were asked to pay N10,000 fee per child for the virtual lectures organised for the pupils.
As it is, only the state government can come to the rescue of the embattled parents with the managements of the affected schools insisting on the payment of the third term that never held, while also demanding payment for the first term of the new session.
