Fayemi abolishes taxes in public, private primary, secondary schools

GOVERNOR Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State has announced the immediate abolition of Ekiti education taxes paid by pupils and students of nursery, primary and secondary schools in the State.

Governor Fayemi, who announced this while on a “thank you visit” to Ekiti north and south senatorial districts, on Wednesday, pointed out that the fees were undesirable and were therefore abolished with immediate effect.

Fayemi, who spoke in Ido-Ekiti, headquarters of Ido/Osi Local Government Area while at the Northern district; and at Ikere-Ekiti at the South district, also told the members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the State that a victory for all of the candidates fielded by the party in the coming general election, was important.

Members of the APC had trooped out in their hunger to receive the governor who was at the two district headquarters to thank them for their support and votes that led to his victory at the July 14th governorship election.

Dr Fayemi said the government would not add to the burden of “the already traumatised parents as a result of the harsh economy and unpaid salaries inflicted by the last administration.”

While at the Ikere community, he also announced that the State would commence school feeding programme in all public schools by December this year.

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While thanking the people for their votes, he said the party faithful must work together as a team to ensure victory for all it’s candidates in the general election next year.

Fayemi, who spoke in Yoruba, said: “We recognise that Ekiti South did very well to give us votes in the election. We thank you. I came to say thank you to all our members because no one could do it all alone.”

He charged members of the party to embrace reconciliation, saying “there’s no way we would play politics without offending ourselves. Let us work together. That’s how we can achieve success in the election.”

Fayemi also charged the large crowd to ensure that they voted for President Muhammadu Buhari, pointing out that “the president has promised to assist Ekiti State, having realised that we are going to inherit a broke State. So the way to show appreciation is to vote for him in the presidential election. We also need you to vote in our three senatorial candidates; our six House of Representatives candidates and 26 House of Assembly candidates.”

The immediate past administration in the State introduced Education Development Levy, in 2015, and made its payment mandatory for students of primary and secondary schools in the State.

Private nursery/primary schools and secondary schools paid N1,000 per term while public primary and secondary schools paid N500 per term.

The levy, which was part of the resolutions at an education summit organised by the state government in 2015, had caused controversy and had led the Catholic Diocese of Ekiti to drag the government to court on the legality of the levy.

The matter is still pending in court.