Some parents and members of the Parents and Teachers Association of the Federal Technical College, Yaba, Lagos State, have appealed to the Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, to intervene in the 140 per cent increase in the PTA levy from N5,000 to N12,000.
This is just as they asked the minister to intervene in the activities of the executives of the FTC, Yaba PTA which they claimed was shrouded in secrecy.
They expressed their concerns in a letter addressed to the minister, a copy of which was obtained by PUNCH Metro on Tuesday.
According to the parents, the increment contradicts their responsibilities as PTA members, which were mainly to support the efforts of the federal government.
The letter, which was signed by more than 20 members of the association, highlighted that efforts to get the executive members to account for previous levies had proved abortive.
It read, “We write to bring to your attention the content of the circular that emanated from the office of the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education (dated 18th and 19th of March of which the content is asked to be brought to Parents attention) stating that the Parent Teacher Association’s approved levy has now been revised to a maximum of N12,000 across all the Federal Unity Colleges.
“This increment as stated, was necessitated by the requests for increment by some supposedly School’s Parent Teacher Association executives to enable them to meet up with their purported obligations. The role of the Parent Teacher Association has been identified as that of giving support/helping the school.
“There was never a place in the guidelines that mandated the Parent Teacher Association to assume the role of the government/ carry out projects beyond its members’ capacity on behalf of the government (who are the primary owners with complete control/ownership of the school) but rather to assist voluntarily.”
They also accuse executive members of allegedly failing to give accounts of financial transactions of the association
“Particularly more intriguing is the fact that despite repeated complaints by Parents and their persistent call for the Parent Teacher Association executives to be made accountable to ensure that the funds being contributed by parents in most of these unity colleges towards ensuring the welfare of our children/ teachers are well supported are put into judicious use, the ministry has remained unperturbed by that pressing demand.
“The continued call by members contributing the money for accountability and transparency on the amount they are paying at the moment has been met with stiff resistance which the ministry is well aware of.
“Federal Technical College Yaba claims to have a staggering 108 part-time teachers under its payroll (which to date the executives haven’t given proof of). These are part of the reasons parents are now questioning how the decisions were arrived at for an over 130 per cent increment instead of calling for proper accountability and judicious use of the levy being collected and are therefore calling for an investigation into this by our ever-dynamic Education Minister.”
They urged the Minister of Education to intervene in the abnormalities and the increment.
“That is why we are pleading and calling the attention of the Federal government and the Honourable Minister of Education to this crucial matter at hand before it escalates into serious protest across all the schools.
“We are pleading with the government to look into this Parent Teacher Association affairs, the illegal increment and proper regulation put in place or scrap it in its entirety as it is now looking more like a scam and an avenue for some executives to enrich themselves and remove their children from the school at the end of their tenure to avoid being probed.”
Meanwhile, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Education, Folashade Omoboriowo, told our correspondent that the approved PTA levy is cut across all federal unity schools across the federation.
She added that the N12,500 was the maximum fee that any PTA could levy on its members, and any PTA and the fee was not being enforced on any PTA.
“We are not forcing any PTA to pay the amount, but it is the maximum that any PTA can charge its members. PTAs can charge below that based on their discretion,” Omoboriowo said.
Efforts to get the reaction of the PTA Chairman, FTC, Yaba, Akeem Ibrahim, proved abortive as he did not respond to messages made to his line.
Meanwhile, a member of the executive who pleaded anonymity, disclosed to our correspondent in a telephone conversation on Tuesday that the increase was part of efforts to cater for the new minimum wage of the 107 part-time lecturers of the school and also to augment the school management’s expenses on electricity.
The source added that the new executive had barely spent six months in office and that the request by the aggrieved parents to explain the financial status of the association has been obliged because a copy of the association’s account has been made available to them.
The source said, “These people have continued to blackmail the executive because they wanted to be in that position too, but they failed. We have about 107 part-time teachers whom the PTA is paying their salary, and because of the increase in the minimum wage, we set up a committee to review how we can also increase these part-time teachers’ salaries from N50,000 to N70,000, which was why we increased the levy.
“We are barely six months in office and they are asking to audit us. The account statement they requested has been given to them. In the few months that we have spent as executives, we have renovated the school toilets from pit toilets to water closet, but everything we are doing is what they are not pleased with.”
