FAYOSE ORDERS NEW LEVY IN EKITI SCHOOLS

Ayo Fayose, Ekiti state governor.

Governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State has introduced a new school levy in Ekiti State, and has increased previous charges paid by students in government-owned primary and secondary schools
across the state.
A new policy agreed to at an education summit in the state last week requires students in public secondary schools to pay N1, 000 per term.
Although the summit recommended N500 per term for primary school pupils, the governor is yet to approve it.
The governor solicited the support of teachers for the new policy.
The summit, which held on September 8, was convened as part of efforts to enhance the State’s ranking in senior secondary school examinations conducted by the West African Examinations Council and National Examinations Council.
The State Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Jide Egunjobi, while speaking with principals and teachers of the schools in Ado Ekiti on Tuesday, said parents and teachers approved the introduction of the “Education Development Levy”.
“Before now, secondary school students were paying N100 as PTA levy, N300 for Extra Lesson and N600 as Examination Fee, while primary school students were paying N100 as PTA levy, N300 for Extra Lesson and N200 as Examination fee, making N600 per term,” Mr. Egunjobi said.
According to him, besides the Educational Development Levy of N1, 000, secondary
school students will also pay N500 PTA levy, N600 as examination fee and N300 for Extra Lessons, all totaling N2, 400 cost per term.
The proposal for primary school, which is awaiting the governor’s approval, stipulates that the pupils would pay N100 as PTA levy, N100 for Extra Lessons, N100 for Examination, totaling N800 per term.
An estimated 178,263 pupils are in the 879 public primary schools; while there are 48,960
in Junior Secondary Schools and 55,677 in Senior Secondary Schools in Ekiti State, totaling 282,900.
The governor through his Chief Press Secretary, Idowu Adelusi, urged the teachers to fully implement the resolutions of the summit.
“Resolutions of the Education Summit will be made available to you all and you must follow it diligently. We all agreed to the resolutions and don’t do anything outside the recommendations of the summit,” he said.
“Teachers are important and you are the foundation moulders and if the foundation is faulty there is nothing we can do. You are special and personal to me because of the consequences of an untrained child are enormous. If you have all the money in the world and leave it for a child and he is untrained then it is nothing.”
Mr. Fayose recalled that during his first tenure in office, he withdrew his children from private schools and put them in state schools then to feel what others felt as parents with children in public schools.
The governor added that this year’s Teachers’ Day would be celebrated in grand style and that best teachers across the three senatorial districts would be appointed as Tutors-General for secondary schools and Head Teachers-General for primary schools.