‘Everyday they say is for the thief, one day is for the house owner,’ this adage came alive recently when the Rivers State Ministry of Education got wind that head teachers of government primary schools in the state, especially Port Harcourt collecting over N2,000 from each pupil for an outlawed First School Leaving Certificate (FSLC) examination.
The ministry quickly announced a cancellation of the said examination, reminding the ailing teachers of impending sanctions for such dubious act.
Speaking to journalists on the issue shortly after a crucial meeting with head teachers of primary schools in the state recently, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, Dr. Richard Oturu said the meeting was to address, the matter, pointing out that the Head teachers have apologized to the government and promised to refund the loot. The perm sec. further explained that the National Council of Education has since cancelled the First School Leaving Certificate in Nigeria and wondered why head teachers would claim ignorant of that, to the extent that they went ahead and organized an illegal examination.
Asked to comment on the allegation that public primary schools heads are not given imprest to manage the schools as stipulated in the laws governing them.
Dr. Ofuru said there is no excuse whatsoever that will exonerated the head-teachers from blame for collecting money from pupils for a non-existent examination, stressing that even if examination papers are to be printed, it is the duty of the Ministry of Education to do that and not the schools.
In an interview with the chairman of Association of Primary Schools Head Teachers, Rivers Council, Comrd. Okoro Messiah, he denied ever apologizing for any wrong doing. According to him, the issue of illegal levies was not mentioned in the meeting.
He attributed the recent organization of the FSLC examination to communication breakdown between the teachers and the Information Ministry, appealing for more cordial relationship. ##
