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From Jude Chinedu, Enugu
An Enugu State High Court has issued an interlocutory injunction restricting the state Ministry of Education from imposing, demanding or collecting fees for basic education examinations in the state.
The examinations include, Common Entrance Examination, First School Leaving Certificate Examination, State Uniform Examinations and the Basic Education Certificate Examination.
The presiding judge of Udenu Judicial Division, Justice C.C Ani while granting the prayers of the applicants ruled that the state should cease from further imposition, demand, collection by force or extortion of various sums of money from primary 1 to JSS 3 classes in all public and private schools in the state pending the determination of the substantive suit.
The plaintiff, Proprietors Association of Private Schools (PAPS) through its counsel, Barr JMCC Ogbuka had in the main suit, 0B/22/2022, challenged the legality of the collection of the fees by the state government.
Ogbuka argued that imposition, demand and extortion of various sums of money from basic education class pupils in the state for any of the mentioned examinations is not only unauthorised by any law in the state and therefore illegal, but also contrary to the trenchant provisions of the Compulsory Free Basic Education Act 2004 as well as the Child Rights Acts 2003 which are extant laws made by the National Assembly.
He argued that the Common Entrance Examination, the First School Leaving Certificate Examination and the State Uniform Examination ceased to enjoy the force of Law with the introduction of the 9-3-4 system of Education in place of the obsolete 6-3-3-4 system of Education under the compulsory free Basic Education Policy of the Federal Government of Nigeria as provided under the UBEC Act 2004.
The President of Proprietors Association of Private Schools (PAPS) Ejiofor Godwin in an interview described the order as justice for parents and school proprietors who are unjustly forced to part with their hard earned money.
He explained that: “Enugu State Ministry of Education, in 2019, introduced the Compulsory State Uniform Exam for all the private and public schools in addition to the Common Entrance and First School Leaving Certificate Examinations at huge cost for each of them which most private school proprietors did not receive with open arms.
“To make the matter worse, the state Uniform Exam was made a condition for registering candidates for such national and external exams as BECE, NECO and SSCE or WAEC. The Uniform Exam puts a lot of pressure, stress, suffering and financial loss on both parents and proprietors of private schools in Enugu State.”
“PAPS went to court as a last resort after the association had appealed to the ministry of education, through the Honourable Commissioner of education, to abolish the State Uniform Exam and reduce the fees for both Common Entrance and FSLC, without any response.
“As law abiding citizens, we are not in court to fight the government as some have interpreted our action but to establish what the law says on these matters and abide by it since there is supremacy of the law in a democratic system which Nigeria is currently practising.”
