Enugu State High Court has issued an interlocutory injunction stopping the Ministry of Education from imposing, demanding or collecting fees for basic education examinations.
The examinations include Common Entrance Examination, First School Leaving Certificate Examination (FSLC), State Uniform Examinations and the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE).
The presiding judge of Udenu Judicial Division, Justice C. C. Ani, granting the prayers of the applicants on June 21, ruled that the state should cease from further imposition, demand, collection by force or extortion of sums of money from primary 1 to JSS 3 in public and private schools pending the determination of the substantive suit.
The plaintiff, Proprietors Association of Private Schools (PAPS), through its counsel, J.M.C.C. Ogbuka, had in the main suit, 0B/22/2022, challenged the legality of the collection of the fees by the government.
He argued that imposition, demand and extortion of sums of money from basic education class pupils for any of the mentioned examinations was not only unauthorised by any law and therefore illegal, but was also contrary to the provisions of the Compulsory Free Basic Education Act 2004 as well as the Child Rights Acts 2003, which were extant laws made by the National Assembly.
Ogbuka said the Common Entrance Examination, First School Leaving Certificate Examination and 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, as provided under the UBEC Act 2004.
The President of Proprietors Association of Private Schools (PAPS), Pastor Ejiofor Godwin, described the order as justice for parents and proprietors, who were forced to part with their hard-earned money.
He said: “The Ministry of Education, in 2019, introduced the Compulsory State Uniform Exam for 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 worsen the matter, 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 parents and proprietors of private schools.
“For example, the exam was introduced with the payment of N300 per child, but now costs N700 per child. They also collect N3,000 per pupil for the common entrance examination and the First School Leaving Certificate Examination and N6,000 for the BECE exam.
“In addition, the Uniform Exam has never been used by the Ministry of Education for the purpose of evaluation and promotion of pupils for which it was said to have been introduced because of no or late publication of the result of the exam”.
Ejiofor said proprietors of private schools, after paying for the fee for the Uniform Exam, also spent more money in making photocopies of the question papers and in uploading their candidates’ names with their photos to a portal owned by a group of people who made a lot of money from every transaction made on the portal.
He said: “To prove that the Uniform Exam was introduced to make money from parents and proprietors of private schools, the Ministry of Education compels proprietors, who refuse to participate in the exam, to pay the fees before they are allowed to register their candidates for any external exam.
“With the introduction of the 9-3-4 system of Universal Basic Education in replacement of the old 6-3-3-4 system, writing of Common Entrance and FSLC examinations is no longer necessary and constitutes a waste of money on the part of parents and stress for the proprietors.
“With this new system, basic education starts from basic one and terminates with basic nine in this order: primary 1-3 is lower basic, primary 4-6 is middle basic and JS 1-3 is upper basic. It is ridiculous for a child to write an entrance exam (Common Entrance) to enter into basic education he or she started in basic education 1, which he or she is to complete in basic education nine, which is JS 3.
“With this new system, the first certificate a child should have now is Basic Education Certificate, which is issued after writing the Basic Education Certificate Exam in JS 3. This makes the FSLC examination written in primary six unnecessary and a waste of money and time.”
Ejiofor added: “What pupils need as evidence that they attended a particular primary school is the school’s testimonial, which can be given to those who are still in the old testament of primary school education.
“But as far as basic education policy is concerned, what we have now is basic education of nine years, senior secondary education of three years and university education of four years.”