Multiple uniforms and levies outside tuition fees have become a fad among private schools. The trend, which makes parents spend more, is seen as extortion by some schools’ proprietors. However, the schools which allow levies and multiple uniforms justify the need for it. They premise their argument on the fact that parents willingly pay. ADEGUNLE OLUGBAMILA, MEDINAT KANABE, TAYO JOHNSON (Ibadan), SAMPSON UNAMKA and JANE CHIJIOKE report.
Ever wondered how you have been unconsciously swindled while parting with ’emergency levies’ in your children school?. As parents, do you ever realise that that little fee you part with at one time or another, as demanded by your children school for your children’s ‘special event’ could form a mighty ocean if you imagine what such amount would have achieved?
It is a fad at many private schools to have more than one uniform which, of course, parents pay for, whether they like it or not. It is also common for them to demand for unexpected fees outside tuition. The fees are usually for ‘special events’ such as Children’s Day party, excursions, Christmas party, Valentine party and a host of others.
These days, most private schools recommend three to four uniforms for their pupils, sometimes at outrageous prices. The uniforms, sometimes, exclude sportswear and those for voluntary organisations such as Boys Scout, Girls Guide, Boys Brigade, Red Cross and others. Sadly enough, parents have to bear all the costs.
Be that as it may, the bottom-line is that schools compel parents to create extra budgets from their incomes to meet some of the aforementioned costs, not minding the prevailing economic hardship.
The Nation’s checks on schools in Lagos and Oyo states revealed that while some schools frown at the trend, others that practise them justify their actions. According to them, their pupils must be seen as being ‘exceptional’ among their contemporaries; hence, the variety of uniforms.
On miscellaneous levies, while some say their schools always get parents involved with regards to such fees, others argue that such events, which come up abruptly, necessitate parents making extra cash available for their wards outside the normal school fees.
Some other schools deny billing parents extra fees, adding that all unforeseen expenses are built into their pupils’ tuition fees at the beginning of each term.
Mix feelings from educationists
The Principal of Baptist Academy, Mrs Abosede Ladoba, frowns at the practice: “We don’t take extra charges or levies from our pupils.” “We are different from a one-man private school; our operation is controlled centrally. We don’t have the power to charge extra fees or levies above their school fees; if we do that it will be illegal charges.”
“It’s not sensible to me,” Mrs Ladoba continued reacting on variety of uniforms. “Why should pupils wear different uniforms everyday? It will not make them to be focused. Already, we have problems with fashion in the world, what they call ‘something in vogue’, because people are almost going nude. So, if we allow them wear different things it’s uncalled for. Uniforms, as far as I am concerned, is to identify or differentiate one school from another. If two, three to four schools wear the same colour of uniform per day, so how do we differentiate them from one another? So, with different uniforms, there will be clashes.”
National Secretary of Baptist Academy Old Student Association (BAOSA), Mr Adeniyi Thompson blames the government for failing to meet the needs of public schools, giving room for private schools to take the shine off them.
“If we had free education we won’t be talking about these things,” Thompson noted adding, “Nigeria is rich enough to run some sort of subsidised education even if it’s not completely free. So, the issue of extra levies is a function of school administration generally because if those things were not too much, nobody will complain. But when the school fees (of private schools) are exorbitant and you now add levies people will complain. It is simply because things are not run properly.”
Mr John Olumide, a teacher at De’ Star Nursery and Primary School, Gbagada Lagos, said the school does not believe in multiplicity of uniforms.
He said: “The idea of different uniforms is a personal thing by schools, in as much as its preserve the durability of school uniforms and also add colour to the school, it also has its negative implication which is that the public won’t be able to identify which particular school wears what uniform especially, those who are already conversant with the school. Some parents might also picture the school too expensive.”
However, Principal, Ivory Land Private School, Surulere Mrs Bridget Okoh, would have none of that. According to her, the school authority communicates with parents when special occasions such as excursions come up.
“I think the idea of wearing more than one type of uniform in schools now is mostly all about aesthetics, and beautifying the school. I don’t think there is anything wrong in that. Just that some parents might want to have an issue with that but in all it’s welcomed,” she said.
Mr Ajayi Olatunbosun, acting principal, Maverick College, Ibadan, added a fresh angle to the trend. Olatunbosun said though the school sticks to two uniforms-normal uniform and sports wear; nevertheless parents are forbidden to sew uniforms for their wards as the school uniform is a bit on the high side because it is customised.
“We hear of it, (variety of uniforms), but we do not engage in such here because of our pedigree. We even go against any teacher recommending any textbook that is not contained in the school list.”
“Our uniform is customised, you cannot buy it just anywhere, we have companies in Lagos that help produce it and we also sew it for them. The price is not so expensive compared to what it could have been and our parents are appreciative of them.”
To make it easier for parents to pay, Director, Lead City High School, Jericho, Mrs Taiwo Owoeye, said the school classifies extra levies which are documented and given to parents.
“In my school, we list all the things we charge, we have a sheet for this outside tuition. We have other fees like development levy, PTA fees, sports charges, and Android fee because we give android device to the students and so on. These are things we charge outside tuition and it is always contained in the sheet given to their parents,” Owoeye said.
Like Owoeye, Principal, The Vale College, Ibadan, Mr Akanbi Obaloja, said every charges for the term is contained in the bill given to every parent before the beginning of the new term. He added that if extra cost comes up, it is made voluntary for interested parents who want their wards to be a part of such event for which the levy was introduced.
Aside this, Obaloja also believes that secondary schools should have just one uniform and not different wears like in some primary schools except for sports wears which pupils in his school wear every Friday.
Pupils of Da’wah Nursery and Primary School, Jakande Estate, Isolo, Lagos, have four wears comprising two varieties of uniforms, one sports wear and Boys Scout attire which is optional. The school’s Head Teacher, AbdulFatai Akinosho, told our reporter that the measure was to ensure pupils appear neat everyday, while parents do less of daily washing.
“The essence of all the uniforms is to assist parents reduce the burden of everyday washing because some parents cannot wash their children’s uniform every day. If a school has only one school uniform, some parents will buy only one pair and misuse it because it is a daily wear. It is to ensure they are neat when coming to school,” he said.
Akinosho continued: “A child should also not put on his or her school uniform on a sports day because the sporting activities might damage the wear. The sports wear suits the sporting activities they do. Boys Scout is part of the children’s extra-curricula activities. The uniform makes it more real for them so we advise that they buy though it is not compulsory.
Mr Adekoya Aseshola, Vice-Principal, New Covenant Secondary School, whose school is Akinosho’s next door neighbour, said it has become a fad for schools within the estate to recommend more than one uniform for pupils.
In my school, we have three uniforms – white, yellow and the sports wear,” he said.
Hear him: “I can say categorically that most schools in the estate have two uniforms and one sports wear. Our uniform is not cheap. They buy two shirts and one pair of trousers for N8,500 and the sports wear is N4,500; but the uniform is of very high quality. We were importing them before but we now have someone here in Nigeria that can give us the same quality.
“Some parents complain that the uniform is expensive though but if you want your child in the school you must buy our uniform which is of very high quality. We always include our charges that are not school fees in the list that we give to parents at the end of the term as miscellaneous and it is not all parents that pay,” he added.
At another school in Volkswagen area, Ojo, Pupils also wear two school uniforms and a sportswear like the previous school. A teacher in the school, told The Nation that most times parents hardly complain about the variety of uniforms as each parent coughs out N2.500 a piece.
“They are okay with the (three) uniforms;” said a teachers in the school who pleaded not to be mentioned, “yet they complain of the price. Each time, parents always use the PTA forum to reignite their displeasure on the cost of the uniform.
The source continued: “I remember there was a time the management wanted to raise the cost (of uniform) to N2.800, but parents kicked against it. Some even insisted that they would be buying materials and sowing the uniforms themselves. But, earnestly speaking, they hardly complain about variety of uniforms.”
Parents support, oppose trend
A parent, Mrs Ose Odion, described the trend as pure extortion: “The management of these schools just extort parents unnecessarily, not bearing in mind that money is not easy to come by, it’s really bad. They forget that the economy of this country isn’t that favourable. I think this issue should be addressed by parents and management.
“The cost of uniforms are really ridiculous,” Odion continued, “you pay a whooping sum for just two pairs of uniforms and in some cases probably a sportswear. It’s really not nice.”
Mr Emmanuel Asekhame, craved government’s intervention through proper quality control.
“Most schools charge extra fees to cover unforeseen expenditure, but for parents, most of them can’t even pay the normal school fees let alone hidden charges. So, I think the government should tackle hidden charges through proper monitoring.
He described multiple uniforms as outrageous. “To me, wearing different uniforms is outrageous. Are the uniforms reducing the school standard? They (schools) should be thinking of how to improve the dilapidated facilities and not how to wear different uniforms.”
For Odior Uwazie, its up to parents to challenge their wards’ schools if they find such extra charges unacceptable.
“I believe the school management will disclose to those parents the reason for such fees. It’s all about arriving at a consensus among all parents of the said school. I would say the reason why schools impose such payment on parents is for their selfish gain and self aggrandisement. But it is now left for them to convince and persuade the parents of those pupils that need to pay.”
On uniforms, he said: “We all know that the cost of uniforms per head is not worth it. But it is also the schools’ source of generating revenue. I’m a living witness to that. And again, wearing different uniforms to school is a waste of money and resources.”
Mrs Dupe Jagun is totally in support of extra fees. “To me the extra fees is a normal thing, if they collect it directly or even add it to the school fees. One way or the other we parents will still get to pay it,” Jagun said curtly.
Similarly, she loves the variety of five uniforms her wards wear each from Mondays through Friday. This, she explains, helps the uniforms last longer as she does not need to ‘wash’ them everyday.
“Well, my children already have three different uniforms which they wear on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, while they wear their sportswear on Wednesday and jeans and shirts on Fridays. I’m satisfied with the change. It makes the uniform last longer, and reduces the stress of everyday washing.
“Also for security purpose, when these children close from school and pass the regular places they take home, it will be difficult to spot that particular child. And again, if someone planned to pick your child without your consent, by the time the child puts on another colour of uniform, the person will be confused.”
Mr Goke Daniels, does not find the idea exciting at all:
He said: “My daughter wears two sets of uniforms and I know how much the school bills me for that, let alone wearing so many on various days. I don’t buy that idea at all, it’s a waste of money. Another charges I do incur from my daughter is on notebooks. The school does not receive any other notebook apart from the one that has the school’s name on it. A notebook of N50.00 might be sold for N80.00. Excursion fee is just too much when you evaluate it.”
As far as she is concerned, Mrs Tola Oladejo does not like the idea of private schools charging extra fees. She believes this is not the best way to handle parents.
“When you pay your child’s school fees, you have rest of mind that you have settled the bill for that term, but they (schools) suddenly ask children to bring money for something again. As civil servants we often would have planned our salary, but because we do not know about these fees, they put us in trouble.” Oladejo said.
Do extra levies rub off on academic improvement?
At King of Kings in Cassidy Okoko, Lagos, pupils are subjected to wearing two uniforms including sportswear. While the cream uniform is worn on Monday and Tuesday, the yellowish variant is for Thursday and Friday while pupils only don their sportswear on Wednesdays.
Despite this, The Nation discovered that many a parent are happy to part with the money.
One of the parents Mrs Ajike (not real name) told our reporter that with the variety of uniforms, her daughter is now poles apart from her contemporaries in her neighbourhood.
“Do you ever take your time to observe how other people watch my daughter whenever she’s ready for school? She asked pontificating. “The different uniforms she wears makes other parents and children look at her with awe. You know they don’t wear a variety of uniforms in her former school before we withdrew on , but now it’s like her school is from Victoria Island (an upscale Lagos neighbourhood) and people now respect me for that,” she added.
Despite the cost of the uniforms and the stress of having to wash them often, Ajike believes they amount to little or nothing since, according to her, she sees results.
“My daughter now speaks better (English); she even tries to correct her mates whenever they speak pidgin English while playing together. It’s not about uniforms alone but we are also paying for everything the school is imparting on our children.
