The Oyo State Government on Saturday cautioned principals and teachers in public primary and secondary schools collecting illegal fees to stop, pledge to punish whoever is caught in the act.
The Oyo State Commissioner for Education, Prof. Salihu Adelabu in a chat with journalists in Ibadan said the act of collecting money from parents by teachers and principals is illegal, saying government policy on education is free from primary to secondary level in all public schools across the state.
He nudged parents and guardians not to pay any fee to principals or teachers but to report anyone who might request or ask them for payment at the ministry.
He said any principal or teacher found guilty will be seriously dealt with, adding that they have been warned during a stakeholders meeting before school resumes.
In his words “As regards the collection of illegal fees, we cannot run away from bad eggs among our teachers, we have been hearing this rumour, I call it a rumour because we have been hunting for school principals and teachers that are collecting levies from our students.”
“Some Zonal Inspectorate Education Officers, (ZIE), our PS; inspector General of Education have been disguising in schools with money to pay such illegal fees when there is a red flag that; in this school, they are collecting illegal fee, I think I can mention two or three of such.”
“There was a radio programme some time ago that they were collecting illegal fees in one of the secondary schools in Iseyin, They tagged the fee as ‘IFINKO’, so we quickly called the PS, IGE in charge of that zone, he searched, and he discovered that nothing of such happened.
“There was another incident in Ido where we were trying to at least get one or two as a scapegoat, but until now, we are unable to get a result.
“We are not resting on our oars because we have stumbled on one, and we are seriously working to unravel the truth of the matter, if we can get it, if that information is correct, that particular teacher will be queried and is going to face the panel, so, all our teachers should be very careful.”
He noted that parents should know that education is free in Oyo state, saying no school, no head of school should demand a dime.
He added: “They should not pay them, when such happens they should, please contact the Ministry of Education in
Oyo state. If they cannot come over, we have all our LIEs (Local Inspector of Education, we have our PS: Inspector General of Education, please contact them, and they should let us know.
“We have been carrying out what I called sting operation, we are going to schools to find out what type of fee or levy they are collecting from students.
We’ve not been able to get so much of them, but In the public domain, we are hearing rumours, we are receiving WhatsApp messages, but we have not been able to at least get one or two of them.”
‘We are still looking for them, you too can help us, if you know of any school, just get in touch with us.”
