An Enugu State High Court sitting at Obollo Afor, Udenu local government area, has issued an interlocutory injunction stopping the state Ministry of Education from imposing, demanding or collecting fees for basic education examinations in the state.
The fees the court banned the state from collecting include Common Entrance Examination, First School Leaving Certificate Examination, State Uniform Examinations and the Basic Education Certificate Examination.
The presiding judge of Udenu Judicial Division, Justice C.C Ani, while granting the prayers of the applicants on June 21, ruled that the state should cease from further imposition, demand, collection by force or extortion of various sums of money from primary 1 to JSS 3 classes in all public and private schools in the state pending the determination of the substantive suit.
The plaintiff, Proprietors Association of Private Schools (PAPS) through its counsel, JMCC Ogbuka, had in the main suit, challenged the legality of the collection of the fees by the state government.
Ogbuka argued that imposition, demand and extortion of various sums of money from basic education class pupils in the state for any of the mentioned examinations is not only unauthorised by any law in the state and therefore illegal, but also contrary to the trenchant provisions of the Compulsory Free Basic Education Act 2004 as well as the Child Rights Acts 2003 which are extant laws made by the National Assembly.
