School Resumption: Parents decry N25,000 COVID-19 test fee

Some parents of students in private secondary schools in Ogun State on Sunday protested against the N25,000 COVID-19 test fee for each of their children.

The government had said no boarding school student would be admitted into schools without a certificate of COVID-19 test which must be negative.

The parents on Sunday thronged MTR 250-bed specialist hospital, Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta, the designated place for the test in Abeokuta, the state capital.

It was gathered that attempts by the parents to get their children tested for free failed as they were asked to pay N25,000 for each child.

Irked by the development,  the parents protested and blocked the entrance of the hospital while the health officials hurriedly left the place.

Speaking on behalf of the parents, the vice chairman, Parents Teachers Association of one of the private schools in the state, Dr Kehinde Sanwo,  queried the action of the government.

Sanwo alleged discrimination against the students in private schools.

She said, “The parents here are good citizens of Ogun State and we are taxpayers.

“When we arrived we were told to pay N25,000. Whereas, some people who arrived earlier paid nothing. So, we don’t know where the decision came from. Some of us have more than two children.

“We need the governor to come to our rescue; we think it (test) should be free.  We were told the directive was from the Commissioner for Health.”

But the government, in a statement by the Special Adviser to the Governor on Basic and Secondary Education, Mrs Ronke Soyombo, said the guidelines were jointly developed by parents, private school owners, government representatives and other stakeholders.

Soyombo explained that while the state government took the full responsibility of paying for public school students, it negotiated a huge discount in the cost of COVID-19 test with some health care service providers to reduce the fee for private school students.

– Punch