The Rivers State Government, has threatened to sack any teacher caught extorting money from pupils in public schools in the form of levies.

Governor Chibuike Amaechi made the remark, while answering questions from the public during his Town Hall meeting in Port Harcourt on Tuesday.

Amaechi said that the government had given free education to the children in primary schools and would not condone any teacher demanding PTA levies, examination fees and other fees.

“Teachers should stop collecting levy of any kind in public schools; if you don’t have money for examination papers, write the examination questions on the board and let the children answer on their papers.

“I will begin to sack teachers who collect money from the pupils,” he said.

Amaechi said that about 300 children were being sent overseas on scholarship by the state government annually.

He said the scholarship was being assessed by children of the poor in order to give them a sense of belonging, although the best among them were selected.

“The demography of those that were successful, the majority of them are from poor parental background.

“ We can’t satisfy everybody; currently the total number of people that are in our scholarship is 1,000 children because, every year, a set will come back, another set will go because they have done four years.

“ Every year, we graduate a set, another set will go; 300 will come back, 300 will go; we started with N1 billion, now we have paid N6 billion,” Amaechi said.

He said that by the time the state finished with primary education and they got to the secondary education, the children of the state could compete anywhere in the world.