Parents pay varying sanitation, PTA charges
Reports of school principals and head teachers indulging in illegal collection of levies have reached a crescendo in the Federal Capital Territory schools. In this report, Ayoni M. Agbabiaka examines the various antics.
Students of both public primary and secondary schools within the Federal Capital Territory are at various times asked to pay between N500 to N1, 000 for various levies like Parents Teachers Association (PTA) or sanitation levy.
Parents, therefore, wonder why environmental maintenance, which is the responsibility of the school authorities, should attract levy vested upon pupils and students.
Though this sanitation levy of N1, 000 per child is not been established in every school, payment of the Parent/Teacher Association (PTA) levy ranging from N1, 500 thrives unabated in FCT schools.
A visit to Junior Secondary School, Wuse Zone 6, speaks volume of what levies are being collected in some schools in the Territory.
The Federal Capital Territory Universal Basic Education Board (UBEB) has, however, noted that it is not impossible that some unscrupulous head teachers and principals have devised means of short-chaining the unsuspected parents, an action the Public Relations Officer (PRO) Education Secretariat, Tony Ogunleye, described as anti-governmental.
According to him, the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) is doing everything possible to make the school system conducive for both teachers and students, at no cost at all.
Basic education for children from primary to junior secondary school, according to him, remains free and, therefore, it is illegal for any head teacher or principal to demand for any levy in any guise at all.
He, however, explained that the PTA levy is the only approved levy collected from pupils as a mechanism for supporting and strengthening the facilities provided by government for the benefit of the students.
According to him, these levies may vary from school to school as each school has its peculiar needs at varying points of the academic session. He further emphasised that the PTA levies must have received approval from the supervisory board of the schools.
In this case, the Universal Basic Education Board (UBEB) has to find out from the schools Parents Teachers Association, what they have agreed to embark upon and at what cost to the parents of each child.
He stated that anything outside the approved levies is illegal and anyone caught indulging in this act will be made to face appropriate sanction which may include dismissal.
He revealed further that, the Director, UBEB, Dr. Adamu Jatau Noma, recently held a meeting with the principals and head teachers and one of the items on the agenda was illegal charges in schools.
At the end of the meeting, the school heads, according to him, were warned and advised to desist from the practice.
“For every crime, there is a recommended sanction in line with the Civil Service Act. Once the budget is passed no school would have reasons to demand for levy under any guise”.
On the inadequate toilets in FCT schools, Ogunleye, said, statistics on available infrastructure in the FCT schools has already been captured and it is being planned for. “We have captured them in the budget. The Minister has approved over N1 billion” so that such schools which lack basic facilities can be brought to standard,” he said.
In view of this, the FCT administration has called on well meaning Nigerians to key into its new policy tagged “adopt a school”.
Speaking to our correspondent, Director, FCT Universal Basic Education Board (UBEB), Dr. Adamu Jatau, explained that this initiative became imperative looking at the daunting challenges affecting the education system, not only FCT, but the country as a whole.
According to him, this policy will go a long way to strengthen the academic activities of FCT schools.
He said: “This is something we intend to promote in line with our UBE slogan ‘Education For All the Responsibility of All’. He urges every member of the society to adopt a school in ensuring education for all children under school age.
“You can decide to adopt a school or you decide to adopt a child. You can decide that every month that child or school you have adopted will be supported with, maybe, N5, 000 depending on your financial strength. That child you adopt becomes your pet project. You watch him grow and attain academic excellence through your benevolence”.
Stressing further, he said: “And if you choose to adopt a school, look at the present needs of the school and take it upon yourself to provide it. It could be cartons of chalk, it could be building of structures or renovation of existing facilities, among others. When structures are built or a child is being adopted, your name will be written in our Guinness Book of Record,” he said.
He, however, commend the heads of the 718 schools in FCT for their steadfastness in keeping the school running in spite of the overwhelming challenges in the education system.
A parent, Mrs. Helen Agbor, noted that paying the PTA levy to support government is not a bad idea, but more needs to be done on the part of government. She revealed that parents are made to part with the sum of about N3, 000 at the beginning of every term for the maintenance of the schools because schools do not have enough fund so it is a way of parents helping with some of the needs of the schools.
“We pay N1, 000 as sanitation levy. For PTA, the primary school is N800 and secondary school is N500”
“I think as a parent, the PTA levy is not bad, but government should do more. For me as a parent, it shows that the schools are still not well funded because the impression we get has been that government is taking care of the schools properly, but the system of collecting PTA each term has shown that the schools are still lacking funds”
She said further that:
“If you go to some of the schools you will see that they don’t have enough chairs, three to four children are crammed in one small desk that ordinarily should take just two students. The sanitation level is very low and the structures are not enough. Government still has to do more to really upgrade the level of education in FCT”
“Most of the schools in FCT don’t have good toilets. If you have one or two toilets for over 500 children, it is hazardous to health. Even with the payment of PTA levy, the schools can still not provide a clean toilet.
They collect sanitation fee of N1, 000 and yet the students clean the toilets. They give the impression that the N1, 000 is to hire cleaners. Is it students that are supposed to hire cleaners to clean the toilets? The students pay the N1, 000 and yet the sanitation is very poor,” Mrs. Agbor lamented.
A primary five pupil of Local Education Authority (LEA) Primary School, Federal Housing Authority, Lugbe, simply identified as Tina, stated that pupils of the school are made to pay N800 as PTA levy.
A primary four pupil of another LEA school in Sabo Lugbe, Peter, said they are made to pay N1, 500 PTA and N1, 000 sanitation levies each term before they are allowed to sit for examination.
A student of Government Secondary School (GSS) Aleita, along Airport Road, Umar Musa Yar’Adua Way, Ujunwa Chuks, said, she pays N500 as PTA levy.
According to another student of the Junior Secondary School, Wuse Zone 6, “We pay N500 as PTA levy and we also pay N1, 000 for sanitation but we the student are still cleaning the toilets instead of them hiring cleaners to clean the toilet for us. They didn’t tell us what our PTA levy is meant for but they tell us that our parents should be attending PTA meetings and still pay” the levy.
Another student, Onyekachi of Government Secondary School, Car Wash, Lugbe, said they are made to part with “N500 as PTA levy during examination period while we pay N2, 300 as school fee to Eco Bank in Area 3 and we pay N500 in the school to the school cashier. So every term, we pay a total sum of N2, 800 except the third term when we pay above N3, 000 because we also pay for scratch card that will be used to check result”
Onyekachi revealed that “many students, who are not able to pay, have their results withheld by the school authorities”. She, however, said students are not made to pay sanitation fee in her school because students are the ones cleaning the school, “so, we don’t pay for sanitation.”
