AMAECHI PERCY ONYEJEKWE – AWKA
Over four hundred school age children have been allegedly denied access to education in Anambra in utter violation of the Child Right Act and relevant extant laws of Nigeria.
The children were said to have been allegedly denied access to the school located at Nnewi after their parents had paid the necessary fees which included registration, tuition, transportation, uniform, maintenance, among other fees for the first term which began in September 2024.
Sources said that the authorities of the institution identified as Anointed Kids Nursery and Primary School had on Sunday, October 27, 2024 at a Parents-Teachers Meeting told the parents that it would no longer convey pupils to the school with the school’s bus, stressing that parents should make their own personal alternative arrangements on how to take their children and wards to the school located uptown , along Nnobi-Amuko Nnewi-Ichi Road, a distant place off Nnewi and Nnobi towns.
The unsavory but sudden arrangement which came to parents as a surprise after the school authorities had been paid the necessary conveyance fee which ranges from twenty-five thousand naira to forty five thousand naira per child was said to have provoked the parents to anger and made them to demand for refund of the transportation fee they had paid.
According to sources, the parents were told that the school does not refund monies and that the monies had been remitted into the bank account of the proprietor of the school identified as Reverend Father Magnus Ebere, popularly known as E-Dey Work, when they approached the school authorities for refund of the money.
Speaking to Daily Champion, yesterday one of the affected parents, Mrs Charles Obinna Amuche said Headmistres of the School, Mrs Gift said there was nothing she could do to ameliorate the situation.
‘ I spent over ninety thousand naira to get my child registered in that school. I paid the transportation fee. Now my child cannot go to school as the term has gone far. They didn’t tell us in time we should take our children to school ourselves after paying all the fees. The place is too far, it is not trekable” , said Mrs Amuche.
Another victim, Mrs Chinyere Anyanwu said: ” when we told the Head mistress if we could add additional transportation fee she declined, saying we should hire a tricycle or pay motorcyclist to convey our children to school. It is unfair . We are begging Anambra Ministry of Education to intervene”.
When contacted by the Headmistress of Anointed Kids Nursery and Primary School, Mrs Gift confirmed the story, on Thursday, October 7, 2024, saying she stopped the school bus because of the exorbitant cost of fuel , adding that she acted on instruction of the proprietor of the school, Reverend Magnus Ebere.
“We called for a meeting to explain the situation. Nobody showed up. I stopped the school bus because we didn’t want a repeat of the sad experience of the last term. We could not afford to continue to fuel the school bus at the exorbitant price of fifty thousand naira per week. I acted on the instruction of the proprietor. He said we should stop the school bus”, Mrs Gift said.
