By Faith Igbudu
Some parents whose children and wards are in private schools are in dire need of bailout for school fees as school owners heighten the ‘no payment of fees, no writing of third term examination.
By the academic calendar, the July examinations transit a child to the next class, and therefore, termed very important. This is where most school owners send back home, children who have been owing any school fees during the session.
Knowing this, parents try all within their reach to ensure their wards have a good academic session by clearing any outstanding that might clog their ward’s progress. To this end, it is usually a tough time for any parent who is financially handicapped.
Proprietors of schools will not accept further pleas from defaulting parents as the session is about to end.
A parent, Mrs Iember Tyokase narrates that all plea she made to her wards school authority to allow her some time failed as the school insist on payment before examinations.
The Voice gathered that the experience of Mrs Tyokase is the general situation in schools within the state capital.
Head Teacher, Light House Academy, Welfare Quarters, Patience Okwube, explained that, the decision to apply the payment of fees, no writing of 3rd term examination approach is important as the school does not run for free.
“There are bills the school needs to pay too and such monies are realised when school fees are paid,” she stated.
She said for her school, “we don’t send such children away, we keep them safe in school but no examination for them. Before the examination, we send notices to the affected parents about the decision,” she added.
However, the Benue State government had introduced ‘free basic education’ in the state to ensure that every Benue child has unflickered access to basic education.
But for some reason, parents do not find such schools appealing enough to groom a child. Many complain of the standard which they say cannot measure up to the least private school, hence, they have to go through the pains of coughing out large sums of money for school fees.