Parents Clash With School Management Over Fees’ Hike

Parents of students at NOWA School, Karshi have clashed with the administrators of the school over alleged non- adherence to a court order stopping arbitrary increments in fees.

LEADERSHIP learnt that there has been a protracted face-off between the Parents Teachers Association (PTA) and the school administration over arbitrary increments of school fees at any shortest notice.

The PTA had cried out to court over the increments, but a second increment of N50,000 came two days after school resumption via text messages and this was resisted by the parents, who insisted that the court order stopping arbitrary increments in fees should be respected.

Meanwhile, a representative of the school, who does not want his name mentioned, said he was only acting according to instructions from the owners of the school and was not in a position to dialogue or let students in except they pay the increment.

However, LEADERSHIP observed that some students and parents were restrained from accessing the school compound on resumption from midterm break because they have not paid the new increments.

Reacting to the development, the vice chairman of the school PTA Abimbola Gbijah described the situation as lawlessness, saying that the PTA sees no reason why the school could not be patient and allow the matter to be determined in court.

According to the vice chairman, “We have taken this case to court, they have been served letters, we were even supposed to meet in court this coming Thursday. Unfortunately, they still remain adamant. You can see what happened, pushing the children out, keeping the students in the sun, even trying to hurt civilian parents”.

Gbijah said it was unfortunate that the present administration of the school is gradually destroying the goodwill that has been built by previous administrations over 18 years as many parents are having a rethink.

Also, another parent identified as Mrs Mohammed said she is not against increments but is totally unhappy with the manner of approach towards parents and students.

She said, “they should not speak to parents like that as if you are speaking to your children even if you are speaking to your children, there is respect between a mother and her child not to talk of the school and parents or teachers”.

According to her, her children were shut out because of the N10,000 end of term activities fee which she had to pay before they gained entrance.