- *COMBATING DANGERS OF ILLEGAL LEVIES IN SCHOOLS: ROLE OF PARENTS*A
By
*Ike Onyechere, MFR*
*Founding Chairman, Exam Ethics Marshals International.*
Nature of Illegal Levies in Schools
Illegal levies in primary, secondary and tertiary institutions in Nigeria may be structured in various ways and under various names and forms: exam administration levy (over and above amounts stipulated by Exam Boards), CBT levy, ICT levy, scratch card levy; building levy, PTA levy, development levy, continuous assessment levy, external competition levy, club levy, remedial lesson levy, cultural day levy, handout levy, past questions levy, etc. etc. The Exam administration levy is the hallmark of “exam magic centres”, “miracle centres” or whatever names they are called. In some schools (public and private), students sitting for post-primary exit exams are required to “register” for each and every paper before entering the exam hall. The preponderance of levies in tertiary institutions, with all manners of creative names, is beyond description.
Most illegal levy scams are in the form of typical corrupt practice of marking up the amount to be paid by parents for their wards over and above the actual cost of particular events/projects. The extra is then creamed off and shared by the syndicate members. A case-in-point is the ongoing registration for 2025 WAEC and NECO exams. The registration for WAEC is N27,000 while that of NECO is N22,500. But Exam Ethics Marshals investigation indicate that secondary schools across the country are charging an average of N85,000 for the two exams. Some schools go further to add N25,000 logistic levy “to help the students pass”
*Organized Criminal Activity*
The typical illegal levies scam is a syndicate operation that goes beyond mere indiscretion by a single staff. It has developed into an organized criminal activity facilitated and perpetrated by syndicates that may include Ministry Officials, Private School Proprietors, Parents, PTA Officials, Head Teachers, Principals, Administrators, Lecturers, Teachers and non-Teaching staff, Contractors, etc.
*Dangers of Illegal Levies*
Many people do not understand the link between illegal levies and the systemic collapse of the moral infrastructure of education. Understanding it requires an understanding of the primary role education plays (or is expected to play) in the lives of children.
Consider the fact that the early stages of life is beginning of the journey of self-discovery for children and adolescents; the fact that Education is the compass for the child to discover his/her mission on earth; the pathfinder for identifying the specific talents God, in His infinite wisdom and design, bestowed on the child for the purpose of achieving the mission. Now, consider the fact that only those children who discover their God-bestowed mission and their God-equipped talents end up achieving their destinies.
The illegal levies scam involves imposition of exploitative, extortionist and illegal levies with focus on the private financial interest of the scammers rather than on the interest of the child. Illegal levies generate the financial resources and incentives for scamming and deceiving children and short-circuiting them out God’s divine arrangement to use Education as instrument of self-discovery and destiny-helper. The other specific dangers of illegal levies in schools include, but not restricted to:
– Placing additional financial burden on parents on top of high increases in school fees.
– Results in all manners of irregularities and malpractices in assessment, evaluation, and examination processes as it results in discriminatory practices against students and pupils whose parents refuse or are unable to pay.
– Compromises the code of honor, truth and integrity that ought to underpin education.
– Criminalizes the processes of admissions, training, examination, certification, registration and regulation.
– Leads to the trending question as to whether or not education in Nigeria has become a scam against the background of the booming illegal levies scams in schools
– Increases the population of out-of-school children as the purpose of the Free and Universal Basic Education law is defeated by camouflaging fees as “levies”
*Differences between Legal and Illegal Levies*
It is important to point out that not all levies are scams. There are distinctions between legal levies and scams
All legal levies are usually communicated to parents at the beginning of each session as part of the Notice of Fees for the new session with those that are optional being indicated.
Ad hoc levies (if and when necessary) that are not part of Notice of Fees are usually announced by Federal Ministry of Education for Unity Schools; by State Ministries of Education for State Schools; and by proprietors of schools (or their designated representatives) for private schools.
All legal levies are usually and specifically authorized in writing by the highest administrative authority of the school and widely communicated to all members of school community.
*Government Ban of levies in Public Schools*
Federal and state governments in Nigeria have sent signals to parents that illegal levies constitute clear and present danger by banning levies in public schools
– The Federal Government commendably banned the collection of levies in Unity Schools as far back as 2016 (See Nigerian Government Bans PTA levies-Premium Times, 10 August, 2016)
– Some State Education Ministries have also announced banning of levies in their schools: Abia-Punch Newspaper, 3rd January 2025; Niger- Independent Newspaper, 16th January 2025; Oyo-Newswing online, 28 May, 2024; Ogun-PM News, 14 September, 2023; Adamawa-Newsdirect, 30 January, 2023; Ebonyi-Sun, 7 May.2021. I may have missed out some states.
*Federal and State Governments are therefore performing their most important duties of publicly announcing the bans. It is the responsibility of parents to drive the enforcement process by refusing to pay illegal levies and publicly reporting and calling out such illegal levies.*
*Illegal Levies in Private Schools*
The recent rise in financial and economic hardships has led to increased rate of imposition of illegal levies in private schools. The level and frequencies of these levies in some schools convey the wrong impression that parents are, somehow, not affected by contemporary harsh economic situations.
*All private school proprietors that have the interest of their parents, students and pupils at heart should be very vigilant and determined in resisting and stopping attempts to impose illegal levies in their schools by any group of syndicates in whatever shape and form.*
*“My people perish for lack of knowledge” Hosea 4:6 ESV.*
Research by Exam Ethics Marshals International indicate that *67% of private and public secondary schools in Nigeria operate as “Exam Magic Centre” or “miracle centres”* Some details about the operation of miracle centres are useful for the uninitiated.
– Most miracle centres have neither the capacity nor facilities to serve as schools and exam centres. But somehow they successful secure registration as schools and accreditation as exam centres.
– Magic centre schools have scanty class populations from JS1 to SS2 and large populations in exit exam class of SS3
– They “generate” fake continuous assessment scores for the students they admit into SS3 classes.
– Operate as syndicates with membership that covers the chain of critical actors in school and exam administration processes. Hence their ability to operate with total disregard to exam rules and regulations
– Lack adequate supervision and often chaotic during exams with students, supervisors and invigilators openly colluding to cheat
– Obtaining of leaked exam questions and allowing impersonators to take exams on behalf of students in collusion with exam officials that include inspectors, supervisors, and invigilators
– Parents pay exorbitant fees and levies, often in hundreds of thousands, for the illicit services of magic centres which are distributed to syndicate members based on agreed formula.
Exam magic centres thrive because parents willingly paying their exorbitant fees and levies. Given the fact that exam magic “schools” are interested only in the money and not in the welfare of the children and the fact that they are effectively laying the foundation for the eventual destruction of the future of the children, why are parents still willingly paying? The answer is in the Bible verse of Hosea 4:6 ESV. “My people perish for lack of knowledge”
*This is why the core objective of this press conference is to enlighten and mobilize more parents to stop the stupidity and foolishness of funding the destruction of their own children; to empower them to say no to illegal levies; and to support government to enforce the ban of levies in schools.*
*The Spiritual Dimension*
Those of us who, (as Political Leaders, Public Servants in Education Ministries and Agencies, School Proprietors, PTA officials and members, Head Teachers, Principals, School Administrators, Lecturers, Teachers and Non-Teaching, Examiners, Supervisors, Invigilators, Contractors, etc.) are involved, by omission or commission, in facilitating or collecting illegal levies must also understand the spiritual dimension.
Being part of the process Scamming and deceiving children and short-circuiting them out God’s divine arrangement to use Education as instrument of self-discovery and destiny-helper have spiritual repercussions in line with Bible verse of *Matthew: 18:6 NIV “If any one causes one of these little ones to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea”*. I have no doubt in my mind that the interpretation of this verse includes the responsibilities of all adults involved in educating children, including proprietors, teachers and parents, to prioritize guiding children aright and avoid deceiving and misleading them.
It is possible that many of us involved in the administration of education in Nigeria (Political Leaders, Public Servants in education ministries, School Proprietors, PTA officials and members, Head Teachers, Principals, School Administrators, Lecturers, Teachers and Non-Teaching, Examiners, Supervisors, Invigilators, Contractors, etc.) may end up with *large millstones hung around our necks and drowned in the depths of the sea of hell* (please note that I am not the one saying so! I am just paraphrasing)
*Combating Illegal Levies in the Context of Exam Ethics Campaign*
It is instructive to situate this intervention in its proper historical context because it is not a new topic. I first made what has turned out to be a prophetic declaration at the opening session of First National Conference on Examination Ethics which I convened from 27th to 31st May,1996 at Gateway Hotel, Otta, Ogun State. Declared open by the then Hon. Minister of Education, Dr. M.T Liman and attended by 530 critical education leaders, I predicted that the monster of exam malpractice, which was then beginning to rear its ugly head as organized crime, if not caged, will destroy the education system. As it had started destroying the age-long code of honor, truth and integrity on which the search for and dissemination of knowledge from one generation to another are underpinned and sustained. I also predicted that it will make corruption to become systemic and pervasive by making any war against corruption, in whatever name called and by whatever agency, difficult to win. This is because all the leaders, citizens, and critical operators in all sectors of society will come from the same corrupt education source code (See my 254-page book titled “Promoting Examination Ethics: The Challenge of Collective Responsibility” with Foreword by Prof Uduogie M.O. Ivowi, then Executive Secretary, Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council)
It is very unfortunate that my 1996 predictions appear to have materialized. But the monster of exam malpractice can still be caged and the education system and the country retrieved from its iron jaws. It only calls for the collective commitment and involvement of all stakeholders as the pillars for a successful campaign are in place. Following the successful launch of the Exam Ethics Campaign in 1996, the 50th National Council on Education granted approval for nationwide implementation of the campaign in 2003. (FME/S/C.25/2003/45 of 3rd December, 2003). I headed the Task Team that established the Exam Ethics and Campus Safety Unit of the Federal Ministry of Education in 2007.
Exam Ethics Marshals and Students clubs are operational in many states and institutions across Nigeria. Operational, training and diagnostic guidebooks, manuals and resources have been produced and distributed. The Exam Ethics Marshal Movement is effectively operational in some African countries including Ghana, Cameroon, Tanzania, and Liberia. The Movement is preparing for major re-positioning and re-launching as open-source, self-recruiting campaign network of ethics-friendly education stakeholders
The clarion call for now is for parents of pupils and students in public and private primary, secondary and tertiary educational institutions to rise and actively support the enforcement of Federal and State Governments’ ban of illegal levies to turn off the financial life-line for criminalization of the education system.
*Ike Onyechere, MFR*
*Founding Chairman, Exam Ethics Marshals International.*
