The InfoStride Forum

Jitters have begun to run through the spine of some public school principals in Osun State as the government has vowed to deal with any school head that exploits parents in the name of state government.

This was discovered when OSUN DEFENDER was on-the-spot-assessment of public schools, which recently resumed for a new academic sessions across the state.

Some of the affected principals have begun to compile names of fresh students, who paid the developmental fee with a view to returning the money back to them.

The state deputy governor, Grace Laoye-Tomori, who doubles as the Commissioner for Education, had earlier revealed that government was aware of various extortion strategies adopted by some heads of schools.

She stated that government did not instruct any head teacher in its public schools to charge any kind of levy from students enrolling in their schools, saying any principal that refused to refund such fund would be sanctioned accordingly.

Heads of public schools have been collecting some fees and asking new pupils or students to bring cutlasses to schools as well as pay Parent Teachers Association (PTA) fee on an annual basis.

However, Laoye-Tomori disclosed that the Mr. Rauf Aregbesola-led administration in the state has vowed to give students in the state qualitative education without making them or their parents pay for it.

"However, guardians, parents or organisations, who want to support government schools, are free to do so, but they should not be forced to do so.

We are aware that some principals have been asking pupils that enrol in their school to bring development fees and cutlasses to the schools, this does not emanate from state government and affected principals must return such fees or face sanctions", she added.

The directives of the deputy governor has begun to cause stir among some heads of public schools, who had collected such fees and were yet to return them to the affected students.

A teacher in a public school, who pleaded anonymity, claimed that the school heads spend the money collected from the new students on building perimeter fence, gates and toilets in the schools, yet toilets are not readily available for students, who pay for the projects.

The source added that the affected heads of schools have been calling each other on the mobile phone after the directive of the deputy governor on how to comply with it.

However, the authority of CAC Grammar School Gbonmi area in the state capital, at their PTA meeting Last Thursday, flagrantly flaunted the directives of the state government, as he told the gathering to go ahead with the payment.

A parent after the gathering lamented the hardship the school authority is making the parents go through, calling on the state government to put machinery in place to ensure that erring school principals comply with the directives.

When the medium visited the school on Friday to seek the principal's side, he was said not to be on seat and his subordinates did not release his mobile phone number.

Osun Defender