Three Principals Suspended Over Illegal Fees …As RSG Recovers N20m Excess WAEC Fees

The Rivers State Government, has warned Principals of Senior Secondary Schools in the state against imposition of unnecessary levies on students.
This followed the state government’s  recovery of over N20 million from principals caught charging excess levies on WAEC registration and the immediate suspension of three principals for further investigation.
The chairman, Rivers State Senior Secondary School Board, David Briggs, who disclosed this to journalists in Port Harcourt yesterday noted that some principals of secondary schools still engaged in imposition of unnecessary levies and extra charges and fees in spite of repeated warnings to the contrary.
He said that the attention of the board had been drawn to that fact, pointing out that the board under his watch would not tolerate the urgly trend.
According to him, the normal WAEC registration fee was N11,000, but that the board approved the sum of N16,000 for schools in the urban areas and N16,500 for schools in the rural areas.
Giving reasons for the additional sum in registration, Briggs explained that such will take care of the cost of administration, transportation and other logistics for movement of science equipment to their schools.
The chairman also frowned at various extra charges by principals on students that transfer from schools to another within the state.
“What the board approved for transfer of student from school ‘A’ to school ‘B’ is N5,000 and that is to cover the school uniform and other administrative matters, and is to be paid once on admission, but that is not school fees”, Briggs said.
He said the board had to go to the field to investigate allegations of abnormality in schools, but noted that what they found was quite revealing.
Briggs, added that their efforts have started yielding results, as some directors in the board are now on their toes to fish out teachers that are no longer in service.

Corlins Walter