Imported User:
What happens at private schools at the end of each session has taught many parents a thing or two about the shylock disposition of private school proprietors.
The managements decision to organize compulsory end of year parties at very exorbitant cost which is often mandatory has raised a serious concern as such unexpected levies are uncalled for after parents have payed exorbitant school fees through their nose.
The imagination of parents is always tasked and beaten when they have to come to the fact that their children are expected to pay so much money just to be given a pack of rice and a piece of meat.
Though, some schools may cleverly not make it compulsory for their pupils, but the hand writing on the wall and pressures mounted on the parents by the pupils compels the parents to cough out money.
But for schools that use the means to exploit parents, it is not negotiable as all pupils must pay. It has become an annual ritual that parents must make to appease the school owners who use such means to extort money from the parents.
Teachers in their various classes would brainwash the pupils by telling them all sorts of lies about the visit of Father Christmas, his personality and that lots of gifts would be given to them.
With this, the pupils are bound to harass their parents until the money is coughed out. Failure to give out the money will only give a wrong perception of the parents to the child who is bound to grow with that notion until it is corrected.
Parents who are financially handicap feel the pain because they struggle to pay tuition fees and for the fact that they want to give good education to their children, they manage to send them to private schools and this has affected many parents.
In an interaction with parents, it was obvious that most were not happy with the situation and from the look of things; they seem not to have an option towards resisting the exploitation
Come to think of it, should we say the situation of the economy and bad governance is responsible for the barbaric act?
Mrs Angela Oshioye said she paid 2,000 for end of year party for her two kids in a private school. She said she was not expecting the school authority to slam such levy at that time of the academic session.
A primary six pupil from Bethel Nursery and Primary school, Bimpe Osho, said there are times her school doesn’t make the payment of such levies compulsory, but that pupils who failed to contribute would be given gift items and other things.
According to her, “In a situation where they want all pupils to pay, the teachers would tell us that if we don’t pay, we will not be allowed into the venue of the party”.
Mrs Jumoke Osho said whenever her daughter asks for such money; she has no choice but to pay.
According to her, “the problem we have is the bad economy and there is no way you can explain to your child that the economy is bad. I can say that private schools like Coroner, Kings College and others pay exorbitant money yearly for parties but what I pay is a minimum of N2,000.
On his part, Mr. Ibukun Beniju also shared his experience. He revealed that he sent his wards to a private school in order for them to have good education but lamented that by the time they asked for money apart from tuition fees, he questioned the rationale behind such money but the kids were always on his neck to pay such money.
So many other parents who also bared their minds in making the obnoxious payment at the end of the year are calling for the scrapping of such payments.
Surprisingly, public schools that might be expected to engage in this act do not. In fact, Lagos State government made it known to teachers not to collect money from the students since government provides books and other items needed in schools and as such, there is no room for the collection of end of year party or graduation levy as any teacher involved would be sanctioned.
The pupils too have not helped matters. Henry Michael Tubosun, a pupil of a frontline private school in Lagos, said he felt bad when he needed the money to pay the end of year party levy and his parent told him they had no money.
He told LEADESHIP how sad he felt and was even thinking of whom to approach to collect the money. At the end, he later spoke with the elder brother of his dad and got the money to pay.
