Ogun State Lambasted for asking students to pay compulsory N25,000 for COVID-19 test

Para nets launch into dull scale protests over appalling decision

Ogun State Lambasted for asking students to pay compulsory N25,000 for COVID-19 test

The Ogun State Government has come under heavy criticism for asking returning boarding students of private secondary schools to cough up N25,000 each for a compulsory Covid-19 test before they are allowed to return to their classes.

Schooling activities came to a halt in Nigeria earlier in the year due to the pandemic, but the Federal Government of Nigeria asked graduating students in terminal classes to resume on Monday, August 4, 2020.

Due to the heavy risks, school environments present as regards to the spread of the Coronavirus however, the Ogun State government has now said that only students who are certified free of the virus will be allowed to resume ahead of their exams.

 

 

The students in SS3 will have 12 days to prepare for their Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (SSCE) slated to begin on August 17.

While the test is free for students of public secondary schools, their mates in private schools have to pay N25,000

According to Sahara Reporters, many parents tried to get free testing for their children to no avail, as they were mandated to pay the sum of N25,000 for the testing on Sunday night. The parents, therefore, staged their own protest at what they said was a "monetization" of the test. 

"Ogun Government Asks Graduating Secondary School Students To Pay N25,000 Each As #COVID19 Test Fee | Sahara Reporters The parents became agitated and staged a protest against what they called monetization of the test."

 

 

The PUNCH newspaper also reported that some of the parents took their demonstrations the 250-bed MTR specialist hospital, Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta, the location for the pupils in Abeokuta after attempts to get their ward's tested for free failed.

In reaction to the fracas, the Special Assistant to the Governor on public communication, Remmy Hassan, said private schools students were meant to pay N25,000 because the government had subsidized the cost by 50 percent.

 

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“The COVID-19 test costs about N50,000. For the students in public schools, it is free but because the private schools could not provide us with the total number of their students, we could only subsidize the cost by 50 percent.

“The reagents for the test have to be made available by NDDC because the students need to resume in the next 48 hours. All these are very important and it will cost money. That was why we decided that private schools should pay half of the cost since they are profit makers,” he said.