#EkitiAffairsUpdate: Fayose’s Education Development Levy under spotlight:
REVELATIONS (NOT A PROBE!!!)
- The fact of the matter is that the Education Development Levy by Former Governor FAYOSE’s administration generated over NGN2. 8 billion total – and that does not yet include 2018 billion during his four years reign (2015-2018) that it was instituted.
- The tragedy is that there were a lot of FGN and IDA (International Donor/Development Agency) funds ignored by or vaulted over Ekiti State under Fayose because of too much grandstanding and abuse or politicization of issues. Otherwise, imposing this levy might have been unnecessary.
- By the Constitution and laws of Nigeria, Public Education up to SS3 is free. Any compulsory levy negating that is illegal, simplicita!! If each school decides on the charges themselves, with some charging N500 per child, and others charging N3000, yet some others charging nothing at all, nobody will complain. But once a government decides by fiat what everybody should pay, then that is an education tax that is illegal. – Prof. Bolaji Aluko
- https://www.google.com.ng/amp/s/punchng.com/catholic-schools-fayose-face-off-education-tax/amp/
Governor FAYEMI has not said levies cannot be imposed, Eg by PTAs, or by alums, but:
- They must be voluntary
- Students must not be denied attendance if their parents or guardians – particularly some with multiple children/wards – cannot pay.
Even in the midst of non salary payments and the availability of this purse, the levy was not always used for what it should have been used for, and is suspected to have led to some decline in Enrolment in schools in Ekiti during the period:
2015, Oct-Dec: NGN58.66 million
2016 Jan-Dec: NGN359.44 million
2017, Jan – Dec: NGN334. 96 million
2018, Jan-Oct: N271.5 million
TOTAL EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT LEVY COLLECTED BY FAYOSE’S ADMINISTRATION: NGN1.024 billion
BUT GRANT TO SCHOOLS:
Sept 2016: NGN108.07 million
July 2017: NGN110.65 million
May 2018: NGN189.32 million
August 2018: NGN43. 41 million (not disbursed yet)
Total Running Grants to Schools: NGN451.65 million
BALANCES IN ACCT AS AT OCT 24, 2018:
Primary Schools: NGN195.87 million
Secondary Schools: NGN436.48 million
So amount used for things other than Grants to Schools:
1,024.56 – 451.65 – 436.48 = N132. 44 million
By the way, the Educational levy was also extended to the five (5) state Technical Colleges (Ado, Otun, Ijero, Ikole and Igbara-Odo) , which technically are secondary schools, but the numbers above given so far do NOT include the TCs, and are NOT even the AUDITED figures!
Audited figures are for 2015 to 2017 only are given below (rounded up), 2018 are due next year.
Figures in Million naira
2015:
SS: 53.60
PS: 24.15
TC: 0
—————–
2015: 77.75
2016:
SS: 218.16
PS: 147.33
TC: 1,478.00
———————
2016: 1,843.49
2017:
SS: 220.88
PS: 119.03
TC: 538.00
——————-
2017: 877.91
Grand Total of Audited Educational Development Levy collected in 2015-2017 = NGN2,799.15 million
That is roughly NGN2. 8 billion total – and that does not yet include 2018.
If in fact School levies were in existence since Imo River, then the protest must have been over:
- State compulsion of education levy, which negates the Constitution. Previously, each school determined its own levy.
- State increase of total levies for some schools – which may have been unbearable for some guardians, especially those with multiple wards and/or unpaid salaries and Pensions or contractor disbursements.
- Ironically there must have been decrease of levy collection for some schools, who may have been VOLUNTARILY been paying higher levies, but are now being forced to pay lower by government fiat
- Extension of such levies by fiat to private institutions. That long arm was a bit much – for which the Catholic Church went to court, and is still in court.
You do the math: 104,637 secondary school students in the 209 secondary schools in Ekiti State paying N2,400 per term, and 178,263 primary school students in 879 primary schools paying N800 per term amounts tob N251 million per term from SSs and N143 million from PSs for a total of N394 million per term. Three terms per year make N1.182 billion per year !
The N1 billion that the last administration raked in over 3 years was even because of serious default in payments: Fayose was expecting to rake in N3.546 billion from long suffering Ekiti parents, for education that is supposed to be free!
It is some of the liabilities arising from sheer neglect of state affairs that are now being cleaned up – and will have to be cleaned up – by Fayemi 2.0 Administration.
