Nasarawa state government has sacked five secondary school principals over alleged involvement in charging fees against the state’s free education policy.
State Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Ramatu Ajuji-Abubakar, made this known during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Lafia.
“From our investigation so far, we discovered and have removed five principals of different schools for charging students fees,” she said.
She further threatened to sanction any principal in public schools caught collecting fees from students.
According to her, the free education policy of the state government is still in force from primary to secondary levels.
“Students are not supposed to pay any money and any principal caught extorting money from the unsuspecting students in the name of school fees would be sanctioned.
“Students in all the public boarding schools across the state are not to pay money or give any food item as the government has taken full charge of their feeding,” the commissioner said.
She explained that the state government, through the ministry, had set machinery in motion to check illegal practices by principals.
Ajuji-Abubakar added that government had provided massive infrastructure at both primary and secondary schools in the state to provide environment conducive for teachers and students.
She said in spite of the huge investments of government in providing infrastructure and feeding for boarding students, government was still battling with the high influx of students from private schools.
She cautioned the leadership of the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) in the state not to charge the students any money without permission from the ministry as doing so would not be tolerated.
