Sanctions await school heads who collect unauthorised fees from pupils in Lagos State, the Deputy Governor, Princess Adebisi Sosan, warned yesterday.

Mrs. Sosan, who doubles as the Commissioner for Education, said the warning was necessary because the government had discovered that school heads were fond of collecting unspecified fees from pupils at the commencement of every academic session.

Public schools in the state resumed yesterday for a new academic session.

She said the government would not be lenient with any teacher or head teacher caught extorting pupils.

According to her, the government has approved and fixed prices for uniforms in public schools.

She added: "Uniforms (including badge and sewing) cost N1, 500, badge N50. Caps and ties are optional, while boarding fees still remain N25,000 per term."

Mrs. Sosan said the government would not allow pupils to wear customised uniforms that had been phased out in the public school system.

She said: "All public schools are henceforth not allowed to use customised uniforms, while students who are yet to have uniforms for the new session should be allowed to attend school for the first six weeks beginning from the day of resumption in mufti."

There was a large turnout of pupils at various public and private schools visited early yesterday.

At the African Model College, on College Road, Ifako, Agege; Junior and Senior Grammar School, Agege, and Babs Fafunwa Millennium Grammar School, Ojodu, among others, pupils were seen cleaning their schools' environment.

The West African Examinations Council has released the result of the May/June 2008 West African Senior School Certificate Examination, withholding over 74,956 candidates results for various cases of examination malpractices.
The Head of Nigeria National Office, Dr. Iyi Uwadiae who disclosed this on Friday said that the reports of the candidates’ involvement in malpractices have been compiled for investigation.

According to him, the reports and exhibits of their involvement would be presented to the Nigeria Examinations Committee of the council, adding, “The committee’s decision will be communicated to the affected candidates through the schools that presented them for the examination in due course.

Commenting on the growing rate of examination malpractices in the country, Uwadiae said it was a societal problem, adding that WAEC alone could not curb it.

He stated, “There is nothing the council can do about malpractice. We can only assist in curbing it, which we have been doing over the years.

At the council, we have zero tolerance for malpractice but we cannot do it alone unless the government and the larger society rise against it.”