To curb the rot of examination malpractice in the education sector, the Exam Ethics Marshals International has called on parents to say no to all forms of illegal levies imposed by public and private schools in Nigeria.

Founding Chairman of the Exam Ethics Marshals International, Ike Onyechere, made the call at a press briefing in Abuja on Tuesday.

Describing the nature of illegal levies in schools, Onyechere said primary, secondary and tertiary institutions introduce these fees in forms of exam administration levy above stipulated amounts by Exam Boards, CBT levy, ICT levy, scratch card levy, PTA levy, development levy, continuous assessment levy among many others.

He said the exam levy is the hallmark of ‘exam magic centres’ and ‘miracle centres’, adding that the extra amounts from the levies are usually shared by 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 indicates 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’,” he said.

According to him, the illegal levies have developed into an organised criminal activity that sometimes involves ministry officials, private school proprietors, PTA officials, principals, lecturers, and non-teaching staff, among others.

Onyechere emphasised the dangers of such levies, saying that it would result in a systemic collapse of the moral infrastructure of education.

He said, “The illegal levies scam involves the 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 of God’s divine arrangement to use Education as instrument of self-discovery and destiny-helper.”

Other specific dangers of illegal levies in schools, he said, include, but not restricted to placing additional financial burden on parents on top of high increases in school fees; irregularities and malpractices in assessment, evaluation, and examination processes which lead to discriminatory practices against students and pupils whose parents refuse or are unable to pay.

More dangers, he said are that it “Compromises the code of honour, truth and integrity that ought to underpin education; criminalises 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’.”

Onyechere however highlighted the differences between legal and illegal levies, explaining legal levies as those 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.

He said that Ad hoc levies that are not part of the notice of fees are usually announced by the 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 the school community,” he added.

The founding Chairman recalled that the federal and state governments had sent signals to parents on the danger of illegal levies by placing a ban on levies in public schools.

Onyechere noted that, “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; Ebonyl-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.”

The Chairman said research by Exam Ethics Marshals International indicates that 67% of private and public secondary schools in Nigeria operate as “Exam Magic Centre” or “miracle centres”.

Furthermore, he said, “Most miracle centres have neither the capacity nor facilities to serve as schools and exam centres. But somehow they successfully 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.

“Exam magic centres thrive because parents willingly pay 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 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 Government’s ban of illegal levies to turn off the financial life-line for criminalization of the education system.”