Parents with children in private school students in Ogun State have protested against a N25,000 fee levied on each returning boarding student for a coronavirus test.
Proprietors of private schools in the state have placed the levy on returning students after the state government fixed resumption of SS3 students for Tuesday, and announced that COVID-19 and malaria tests are mandatory for returning boarding students.
The school reopening is to allow the students to prepare for the Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (SSCE) slated to begin on August 17.
The COVID-19 test is free for public secondary school students.
Some of the parents took their demonstrations to the streets, faulting the decision of the government to ask them to pay.
The protesting parents were at the 250-bed MTR specialist hospital, Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta, the designated place for the pupils in Abeokuta after attempts to get their wards tested for free failed.
Some parents described the fee as insensitive on the part of the state government.
“How many parents can afford to pay N25, 000 in Ogun where there is acute poverty?” a parent whose child attends Redeemers’ High school in Mowe asked.
“The ministers of health and education should better think of another means to rake in money from people,” she said.
Another parent, who spoke to the media also questioned the rationale for the test fee.
“My brother has been told to pay N30,000 before the school resumes for COVID-19 test. The test is supposed to be free if truly the government is concerned about the people,” the parent said.
However, Remmy Hassan, the Special Assistant to Governor Dapo Abiodun on Public Communication, said private schools students were meant to pay N25,000 because the government had subsidised the cost by 50 per cent.
“The COVID-19 test costs about N50,000 for the students in public schools, it is free but because the private schools could not provide us with the total number of their students, we could only subsidise the cost by 50 per cent.
“The reagents for the test have to be made available by NDDC because the students need to resume in the next 48 hours. All these are very important and it will cost money. That was why we decided that private schools should pay half of the cost since they are profit makers,” he said.
