By Okey Alozie
There is serious war going on in the Education Sector in Imo State now and this war as we gathered is between the Leadership of All Nigeria Conference of Principal of Secondary School (ANCOPSS) Imo State wing and the Leadership of Imo State Secondary Education Management Board (SEMB) over extortion of money from students and teachers.
Information revealed that the money for the registration of West African Senior Secondary School certificate Exam, otherwise known as Senior WAEC for 2024 is on the high side which made parents and school children to protest against the outrageous charges.
Against this backdrop, ANCOPSS, SEMB and other major Stakeholders of secondary Education met and agreed on a fixed amount to be collected for both Senior WAEC registration and National Education certificate (NECO).
It was uniformly agreed that WAEC should be N32,000 while NECO registration fee was agreed to be N29,000 after all statutory fees were added.
Our source revealed that thereafter, the leadership of SEMB and ANCOPSS jointly agreed that the charge for both WAEC and NECO should amount to N61,000 surprisingly It was discovered that some principals allegedly collected more than the amount approved for registration of WAEC and NECO.
We were also informed that some schools in Owerri Municipal and Owerri North Local Government Areas collected over N80,000 as registration fees for both NECO and WAEC and this development triggered the fight between SEMB and ANCOPSS leadership led by Mr Frednald Duru.
Report has it that the leadership of ANCOPSS is now asking why some Principals should be treated as sacred cows by giving them separate approval for WAEC and NECO registration outside what was originally agreed in the Stakeholders meeting. It was then suspected that some of those Principals collecting high WAEC and NECO registration fees are getting their backing from those at the helm of affairs.
Records has it that these money-minding Principals allegedly demanded and forced Students to register for both WAEC and NECO at the same time even when it is said to be optional.
They also forced the Students to pay the following money as part of WAEC and NECO registration fee
Send off party fee- N5,000
P.T.A Fee – N2,000
CAS Money – N3,000
Lesson Money – N3,000
Exam Assistance Money – N5000
