College of controversies

From Obinna Odogwu, Awka

All is not well at Community Secondary School, Awba Ofemmili in Awka North Local Government Area of Anambra State.

The Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) of the school, led by Mr George Agunwa and the principal, Dr Herbert Ibe, are currently on warpath over a series of issues bordering on alleged financial fraud, school fees inflation and other corrupt practices.

The PTA also accused him of exploiting its poor and vulnerable members by taking them to his farms to work with the promise of reducing their children’s school fees.

This, it said, amounted to forced labour which runs against some sections of relevant national and international labour laws.

The body also accused Ibe, who just retired from service, of refusing to render accounts on how he spent the sum of N1.8 million belonging to it, alleging that the now former principal “used parents in Awba Ofemmili to make money.”

The parents alleged that Ibe introduced a series of fees that were not approved by the government and inflated the approved ones to exploit them because they were educationally disadvantaged and as such might not be able to take him up. The PTA chairman told Saturday Sun that the principal collected the sum of N5,420; N5,390 and N21,900 as school fees for each student in JS1, JS2 and JS3 respectively; adding that late payment for JS3 students was N26,000.

The allegations by the PTA leadership suggested that the parents did not all pay uniform fees for their children in the school.

To establish if there was a fee structure for public secondary schools in the state, the reporter visited the Post Primary Schools Service Commission (PPSSC) in Awka, Awka South LGA.

PPSSC is a government’s establishment saddled with the responsibility of overseeing the affairs of all post primary schools in the state. In addition to other responsibilities, it regulates and supervises what goes on in the schools.

The reporter also spoke with the ex-principal, Ibe, who denied the allegations, saying that he maintained a very clean record throughout his service years in the school.

The school fees list from the PPSSC signed by its auditor, Nkechi Ozoemena, shows that students in junior classes across government schools in the state do not pay tuition.

The list shows that some of the fees were not even mandatory, as schools chose whether to pay them or not, depending on their peculiarities. It, however, has a few other fees which were not optional.

For JS 1 and 2, there are only six items on the list that are mandatory and they totalled only N1,220. For the JS3 students, there is an additional N6,000 which is the fee for their Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE).

The mandatory fees for junior secondary level are: Equipment (N700), Guidance and Counselling (N100), Debate (N100) ANCOPSS (N20), Moral Instruction (50), Exam (N250) and BECE for JS3 (N6,000).

The optional ones are: PTA levy (N1,000), Special PTA levy (N1,000), Robotics (N1,000) and Edugame (N300).

For the senior secondary level, the mandatory fees are: Tuition (N2,920), Sports (N30), Guidance and Counselling (N100), ANCOPSS (N20), Moral Instruction (N50), Stamp Duty (N50), Debate (N100), and Exam (N250) totalling N3,520.

The optional ones are same as that of the junior secondary level but there is an addition of Zonal PTA levy of N500 which is equally not mandatory as schools may choose not to pay them.

For the SS3 students, the West Africa Examination Council (WAEC) and the National Examination Council (NECO) fees are N23,000 each.

The students of the school have also stepped forward with their allegations too, accusing their former principal of exploitation and high handedness. Like their parents, they’re also holding firmly on Ibe’s jugular.

The students alleged that the principal and the teachers usually took them to their farms to work for them during school hours and that the latter hardly come to class to teach as they should.

The PTA chairman, Agunwa, told Saturday Sun that since the principal assumed office sometime in 2021, he had never rendered a comprehensive account of his stewardship in that school.

Agunwa narrated thus: “He would collect the PTA levies and pocket them. He had three records with which he ran the school. He used his private account to run the school instead of the school’s account. I have gone to the audit unit in Awka and reported the situation.

“I had written him a letter, inviting him to come and render accounts to us but he refused to honour it. He had messed up this school. Before, we had over 200 students but now they’re a little above 100.

“He collected money from the students and said that it was for electricity bills. He also collected money from them and said that it was for send off, that he was going. Is he the one to send himself off?

“I have written a letter to the auditor. We have also written to the PPSSC. They need to come and verify our claims. Where the corps members are living, we paid for it but the principal has refused to pay back.

“But parents paid over N2,000 each as PTA levy. He created two PTA levies – Special PTA and PTA – and each of them is N1,000 each. This money was not accounted for.

“For WAEC fees, he collected over N90,000 from each student. But when I met with the auditors, they told me that the appropriate amount was about N40,000. WAEC and NECO were N23,000 each with their school fees.

“But he collected over N90,000 from each student. And he doesn’t make use of the school’s bank account but his personal account. What pained me the most was that he collected the same amount from Rev. Fr. Joseph Nwilo. He collected an inappropriate amount from the Catholic priest. The priest paid school fees for someone because there was scarcity of naira.

“The person paid into the Father’s account and asked him to pay into the school’s account. But when he got there, the principal refused and told him to pay into his personal account.

“Mr Ibe has the PTA’s money totalling N1.8 million. We have asked him to render an account to us but he refused. That man used parents in Awba Ofemmili to make money.

“He hails from Ihiala. He felt that because we are educationally disadvantaged, he could do whatever he wanted. But we will make him understand that we have educated people too. I am an ex-seminarian just like him.

“When we send our children to school, he takes them to his farm to work for him. Our children harvest rice for him and thereafter use heavy sticks to detach the seeds from the stems by hitting the heaps repeatedly.

“He takes some parents to his farm to work for him in exchange for reduced school fees. That is, instead of paying them for their work, he will tell them that he would reduce their children’s school fees.

“The scratch card for checking results was about N300 but he collected N500 from each student. There was no light in the school but he collected N200 from each student for the electricity bill every month.

“This man collected PTA levy from pupils in Primary 6 for the month of July and then still collected the same amount for their JS1. He also collected the same from the outgoing SS3 students. This means seven classes paid him instead of six.”

Asked what the PTA levy was for, Agunwa said: “The principal said that it was for security but we don’t have security men there. We don’t also have PTA teachers. We paid for the maintenance of the bus and that’s another N2,000 per student.

“You can confirm these things from the Catholic priest, Fr. Nwilo; our traditional ruler, Igwe Ezekwesili Maduagwuna, and the president general, Emenike Nwakaeze. You can ask their parents too.

“There was no PTA meeting throughout the whole 2022. And that situation still persists till today. We didn’t approve the Special PTA and PTA levies. We don’t know what the money was used for.”

Another parent, Mrs Grace Chiwetelu, narrated her personal encounter with the former principal when she went there to enrol her son in the school.

“My son joined the JS2 class from the second term. The day I went there, what the principal wrote for me was N11,200 plus. That day, I gave him N5,000. The next day, I went to the school and gave him N8,000.

“After giving him the money, he said that I should add extra N3,000. It was at that point that I summed up the money I gave him so far and realised that I overpaid him.

“So, I reminded him the amount he told me the first day I came which he even wrote down; and that I had just paid more than that; which meant that he was supposed to refund me some money.

“He said well, that if I knew how to do farm work, that he had some work that he would want me to do for him. He said that he had a farm covering two chains.

“But I told him that it had not been long since I returned from the city and as such didn’t know how to do farm work. He said that if I wouldn’t work for him, that I must bring extra money when the next session begins.

“When that time came, he said that I wouldn’t pay that amount again, that it was now N18,000. I now asked him if people paid up to that amount when their children wanted to start school.

“He said ‘madam I don’t have time for this type of argument.’ Some members of the vigilante patrolling the town were around the day I gave him the N8,000. He told me to go and bring N18,000 but I told him that I didn’t have money again.

“When the time for their junior WAEC (BECE) came, he said that the students would pay N22,000. I went there and gave him part payment of N13,000. I later completed it and requested a receipt but he refused, saying that I must pay extra N15,000.

“During their second term examination, he chased my son outside, insisting that he wouldn’t partake in it. This thing happened last year, 2022”, Chiwetelu narrated.

Some students of the school – Ekene Mmadubuike (SS2), Maryann Okoye (JS3), Esther Emeka (JS3), Ebelechukwu Nwoye (JS1) – corroborated the PTA chairman, alleging that their former principal messed up the school.

Mmadubuike alleged that the principal had taken him to his rice and cassava farms alongside his classmates to work for him during class hours.

“That day was a Wednesday and it was in the morning that he took us to his farm. That was during the last term before we closed to celebrate Easter.

“That day, he took us to his rice and cassava farms to work for him. We planted maize in his new farm and harvested cassava from the old one. Some students peeled it while some others planted coconut for him.

“We also weeded his rice farm before going back to the class. We worked for about two hours. When we returned to the class, we did just one subject before the school closed for the day. But he is not the only one doing it. Other teachers take students to their farms during school hours. Sometimes they take junior students and sometimes they take senior students.

“And I am not happy about that. I didn’t go to school to work for them. My parents sent me there to learn and not to do farm work for teachers.

“Other students are not happy too. As soon as the teacher that brought them to the farm leaves, they will begin to murmur and express their anger,” Mmadubuike narrated.

On her part, Okoye alleged that the teachers usually came to school whenever they liked. She said that sometimes, some of them wouldn’t come to school for two straight days.

“And when they eventually come to the class, they will teach once and you won’t see them again. Sometimes, they will come to school only two times in a week”, she alleged.

Okoye said that the school has only about 10 teachers handling JSS1 to SS3 students. We don’t have enough teachers. What they do is that a teacher can take two subjects. She may be teaching the junior class English Language and then teaching the senior class Igbo Language.

“Again, one may be teaching Igbo Language and CRS (Christian Religious Studies) while the other will be teaching French Language and HPE (Health and Physical Education). That’s how they shared the subjects.”

The Labour Prefect of the school, Arinze Okafor, rated the principal very low, saying that he performed poorly while he held sway before his recent retirement.

Okafor, who is in SS2, told Saturday Sun that the principal had contracted five students to plant coconut for him in 2022 but refused to honour their agreement.

“The coconuts are 300 in number. He said that he would pay us N100 per one coconut. We suggested that it would be better for the students to do it as school work instead of him paying. “He said no, that he wanted to pay for the services. He said that he wanted a neat job and that’s why he wanted the five of us to do it. So, we did the work for two days. While others were in the classrooms, we were working.

“So, when we finished, we went to him to fulfil his own side of the bargain. He calculated the money and told us that the amount was N30,000. We said yes that we had calculated it.

“Surprisingly, he said that he wouldn’t pay us as agreed earlier, that he would now pay N50 per one which amounted to N15,000. We said no problem, that he should bring the money.

“To our surprise, he told us that he didn’t know who we were. While we were still on it, he argued that we were supposed to do the work free of charge as students.

“We reminded him of our earlier position on that which he said that he didn’t like, that he wanted a neat job. For two days, we were working while others were in their various classrooms.

“It became a problem as others insisted that he must bring the money, that it was an agreement. I was not bothered. I was willing to forgo the money. I am not just a student, I am also a tailor. But later, he said that he would give them N3,000. The students considered and told him to bring the N3,000 but he is yet to give them the money till today. This thing happened last year during that 2022 flooding.  When the time for school fees came, we told him that since he still owed us for the job we did, that we would deduct the money from our school fees but he refused, insisting that we must pay our school fees completely,” Okafor narrated.

A parent, Mrs Janet Mmadubuike, blamed the government for the problems in the school. She lamented that some of the teachers posted to the school appeared to be more interested in farm work than teaching.

“This government’s policy mandating the teachers to teach in their towns and local government areas is not working for us. It now made our people who were sent here to teach to face some other things.

“What they now do is farm work. They seemed to be more interested in farming than teaching. They don’t seem to take their teaching jobs seriously. They first go to their farms before going to their various classes. Some of the students are gradually losing interest in going to school. And you can see it from their conducts”, Janet said.

Asked what they did as parents concerning that situation, she said: “We expressed our reservations about their bad conduct. But what some of them started doing was to embark on transfer to other places.”

The parish priest of St. Paul’s Catholic Church in the community, Rev. Fr. Joseph Nwilo, told Saturday Sun that so many things have gone bad in the school. “When it comes to education in this place, it is nothing to write home about. Some teachers that are posted here don’t come. And some of their indigenes that are posted to this place wouldn’t want to come home; to come and teach.

“And that is what I have always told them. How can you not come home to help your brothers if you’re posted to come and teach here? If you don’t come, who else will come? These are your brothers and sisters.

“But even at that, those that are posted here to teach exploit the people. If you go to their secondary school, there are different fees that are being charged the students which are not according to the government’s rating.

“They impose certain things upon them which is very wrong. And these people are very poor and you are imposing all these fees on them. Where the school fees should be N2000, for example, you bill them over N4000.

“I can’t come out on that matter but I tell the people that they can take the measure of getting to the state government to find out what is the reality.

“And sometimes when you get there, they will play you because they’re all collaborators in the same evil. And I mean the government officials who’re supposed to supervise them. I had to confront one of them who was posted to this place but they worked their transfer to another place. But when the interview was done, it was to this place they should be posted.

“When the posting came out, they were reposted to another place. And I know it cannot happen without something. That is the Nigerian situation. So, their education is very poor; very, very poor,” the priest lamented.

President-General of Awba Ofemmili Development Union, Chief Emenike Nwakaeze, lamented the situation of things in the secondary school, describing it as “horrible.”

Nwakaeze, who begged the government for assistance, lamented that teachers who were posted to the school sought transfer almost as soon as they came and moved to other schools in the urban centres.

The first time the reporter visited the PPSSC headquarters in Awka to speak with the chairman of the commission, Prof. Nkechi Ikediugwu, she was about going out to attend an official engagement somewhere but promised to look into the matter the next day.

Ikediugwu, who expressed surprise over the development, ordered the summoning of relevant officers of the commission to her office the following day including the embattled retired principal. She also asked the reporter to attend the meeting. At the meeting attended by the head of Awka Zone; the Public Relations Officer, Ngozi Mmuo; the auditor, Ozoemena, and others, Mr Ibe told his own side of the story.

“These are false allegations. I don’t think that there is any principal that normally inflates school fees. Normally we have meetings and we are given the breakdown of fees to collect.

“My school, when I went there, they were not paying PTA levies so I wrote and it was approved. Maybe that addition of the PTA and other fees that the government approved raised what they have been paying and they called the zonal auditor for me severally.

“In most cases these things are trashed. They were normally told that there was nothing wrong in what I was collecting.

“When I wanted to do principal and corps members’ send off ceremony and even the Special PTA from the third term that it was written, the zonal auditor said no, that I should refund them and I refunded them.

“I refunded those that paid for corps members’ send forth and I personally did the send forth of all the principals that served in the school before I came in, about five of them. And they were present.

“So, the school fees we normally pay, all are written down. There’s none I put. The first time I entered there, there was a fee that was, I think N3,960. So I said okay because of the N40 difference let me make it N4,000. But they said no. The auditor came and said that I should refund the N40 and I refunded it. So, there is nothing like inflating the school fees or collecting what I was not asked to collect,” Ibe said.

The ex-principal, who brandished pictures of some of his achievements in the school, said that he didn’t make use of the school’s bank account as he used the meagre financial resources available to him to work, just as the money came.

Ibe denied taking students and their parents to his farm to work for him, saying that he hired labourers, adding that some of the labourers had their children as students in his school. He also said that the coconut planted by the students was the school’s work.

“Normally, I farm and I hire labourers. So, if any parent presents himself or herself as a labourer, I will hire him or her. They will work for me and I will pay them. If he doesn’t have money to pay school fees, he’ll now pay it from the paid labour he did,” Ibe said.

Chairman of the commission, Prof. Ikediugwu, said that she would investigate the matter and take appropriate actions.

“There is something we call INCU – investigation and compliance unit – in this headquarters. As soon as you are leaving now, they are going to that place.

“They’re going to investigate everything that the principal has said. We’ll interview the parents, the students and the teachers. So, when they now come up with their report and recommendations, we’ll take it up from there.

“And after that, if I am not impressed, I will go there myself. I will go to the school and do my own investigation to be sure that all the principal has told us is correct.

“You know the man has retired. I will now see the new principal and also warn him not to bring a rancour between the commission and the community. With these two strategies, I think we can restore peace in that community and in that school,” she said.

Asked what she would do if the ex-principal was found culpable, Ikediugwu said: “It is straightforward. If it is financial misappropriation, he will be indicted and he will pay. Although he has retired, he has not collected his benefits.

“The commission will deduct it from his benefits. So, he will pay. And if the community are the people that are found faulty, we will write letters to the traditional ruler and the priest, compelling them to pay the man. So, justice must be done in this case.”