NOWA VS PARENTS AND TEACHERS: Parents urges respect to rule of law, timely information on fees increase
State Correspondent
Members of Parents Teachers Association (PTA), of the NOWA Secondary School Karshi, in Nasarawa State Nigeria to apply courtesy and respect, especially in their information management while adhering to the rule of law.
As told by the parents, the school initially issued them a bill at the beginning of the session which many of them proceeded to pay with some parents even paying for the entire session in advance if they were financially capable enough to. They were however informed of an increase in fees twice before the session’s third term and informed that their wards would not be allowed to resume or even allowed access to the school’s premises.
The Parents and teachers association (PTA) said attempts were made to reach out to the school authority for dialogue and to enable both parties to come to a better, mutually beneficial understanding but all efforts proved futile as the school authority maintained that its position on the issue was final and the decision was irreversible, but the PTA took the matter to court and obtained an injunction forbidding the school from implementing the new fee increments and summoning the school management to address the issue.
The school authority however claims to not know said summons and has enforced their decision, refusing parents and guardians who haven’t paid the increment access to the school premises.
The PTA Chairman and vice chairman had originally agreed with members of the PTA to stand by the court’s decision, gather at the school on resumption and protest the increments but the actual unity and solidarity necessary to pull off this protest seems to be lacking within the PTA as the chairman and vice are left to carry the torch alongside a few brave parents, whilst a large number of parents yielded to the schools demand and paid the fee. Passively commenting on the protest, a parent dropping off her sons asked if she was supposed to take to arms against the armed military men at the gate enforcing the increment, noting that most parents were avoiding the embarrassment that came with confronting the military to access the school without paying the increment.
According to a parent of four who preferred to remain anonymous, the problem was not the cost of the increment as he was ready to borrow to pay if he needed to, he, however, stressed that the school’s manager needed to respect the rule of law and obey the court summons and injunctions if it refused to respect the parents as paying clients at least.
Mrs Hauwa Muhammad whose three children were initially denied entrance because of a ten thousand Naira levy which was paid but hadn’t been reflected in the school’s database stated that she was appalled at the disrespect and disregard for the parents. “I don’t have a problem with the increment because everyone knows things are hard, but I have a problem with the manner of approach and the way the Chief’s wife spoke to us…even if we paid 10 kobos for school fees, we work hard for it. She can’t ask us how much we are paying that we are complaining…I was stopped because of ten thousand Naira, it is annoying because I already paid. We need to come together and talk amicably. We know the case is in court but we don’t know anything about it.
As of 5:30 pm yesterday, the parents and the military guards were still engaged in physical and verbal confrontations as neither side was willing to listen and compromise leaving the students, many of whom had exams the next day as collateral damage in the rive.
This sad event may have great influence on the negative impact on the image of NOWA educational center which was once revered for providing a certain standard of education and discipline for the children has become a source of concern for the parents as many of them have resorted to withdrawing their wards citing the current events as well as the exodus of teachers as the reason for their decision.
