The Rivers State Government says stringent  measures would be employed to check the high rate of  collection of unapproved fees in various secondary schools across the state by school Principals.
The State Chairman of Senior Secondary School Board (SSSB), Chief David Briggs gave this indication in a meeting with major stakeholders in education in his office in Port Harcourt over the weekend.
Chief Briggs said the meeting became necessary in view of attitude of some principals in the state who are still  collecting unapproved fees from parents despite the state government’s warning, adding that, government would employ tough measures against those principals that would henceforth flout the directive.
According to him, the state government had recently suspended some principals who were caught in the act of collecting illegal fees from students and later recalled them back after they were mandated to refund the monies to the students with a view to serve as a deterrent to others.
He averred that, despite the punitive measures applied by the board against the erring principals, the trend still persisted among principals across the schools in the state.
The state chairman of SSSB disclosed that investigation conducted by the board reveals that some principals have resumed  the collection of unauthorized fees from parents and warned those principals indulging in the act to desist or be prepared to face the full weight of the law.
“Our investigations reveal that some public school principals and school management  have resumed   illegal fees again. We had explored an intermediate measure, some were suspended and directed  to refund the money and later recalled them back.”
“We thought that the moderate  measures that should have deterred them was employed yet it persisted,  we will employ extreme measures according to the law, dismissal, termination, demotion pending on evidence at hand,” he stated.