Nigeria Parents Forum Appeals To Federal And State Governments For Waiver Of School Fees In All Schools For The Rest Of 2019/2020 Academic Session.

The Nigeria Parents Forum has called on the Federal and State Governments to waive the school fees of the remaining 2019/2020 academic session for parents and guardians. The National Coordinator of Nigeria Parents Forum, Mr. Monday Eze, made the call in a press statement made available to newsmen in Abakaliki on Tuesday, 29th September, 2020.

According to Mr. Monday Eze, " On behalf of the members of the Nigeria Parents Forum, I hereby appeal to the federal and state governments to waive the school fees for the rest of 2019/2020 academic session for parents/guardians in all government schools. This call has become necessary in view of the devastating impacts of Covid-19 pandemic on the global economy and on the individual incomes of Nigerian parents in particular."

Mr. Eze suggested that "funds for the grossely abused school feeding programme should be channeled by the federal and state governments to the direction of school fees of Nigerian school children and undergraduates".

The National Coordinator of Nigeria Parents Forum pointed out that Nigerian parents need this special intervention of the federal and state governments to offer them room to prepare to handle the payments for the 2021/2022 academic session.

It could be recalled that following several calls by Nigeria Parents Forum on both the federal and state governments for a Covid-19 response protocol for the education sector and for resumption of schools. The federal and state governments yielded to the pressures of Nigeria Parents Forum as well as those of other critical stakeholders in the education sector and, in conjunction with the National Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, announced a Covid-19 response protocol for the education sector permitting resumption of schools. So far, many schools have resumed in states of the federation while the remaining states are preparing grounds for school resumption. These developments have financial implications for Nigerian parents hence this request for waiver of school fees.